


Sword Art Online, Remastered

by Ivegottafixit



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Death, F/F, F/M, Inspired by Sword Art Online, Loss, M/M, Minor Character Death, Swordfighting, Swordplay, Swords, Trapped, Video Game Mechanics, Virtual Reality, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26936503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivegottafixit/pseuds/Ivegottafixit
Summary: Kirigaya Kazuto is a 16 year old growing up in Japan in 2022.  At the dawn of the Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (VRMMORPG) era, he is one of the lucky 1,000 beta testers able to try out the very first game to go with the "full dive" experience, Sword Art Online. Word was that the creator of the game had started on SAO long before full-dive technology was even thought about, and he had tinkered with it for years until it was perfected.  When the NerveGear VR system, a console capable of handling the SAO interface was finally released, Kayaba put the game out.  Production of the NG had to be sped up to handle the high demand by the time the game was released in November.On November 6th, 20,000 people logged on to SAO, amazed by the world.  Many of them are unaware that the game is missing a vital link.  Kirito tries to rush off to get ahead of everyone, but is quickly stopped by Klein, a newb to the VR world.  Kirito gives him some tips and they soon discover the Log Out command is missing. Kayaba transports everyone to the center of town to let them know this is not a bug.  This is the main feature of SAO.  If you die in the game, you die in real life.  If you want to live, you must win!
Relationships: Argo/Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito, Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Sachi, Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Yuuki Asuna | Asuna
Comments: 31
Kudos: 14





	1. Welcome to the World of VRMMORPGs

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so obviously this is an SAO AU. My biggest issue with the show has always been that Aincrad is such a grand world, 10,000 Characters, 100 Dungeon Floors, 2 Years spent in the game...and we only meet 40 people, see 10 floors and get to follow about 3 weeks of their life in game. By the second episode, they still hadn't made it out of the first floor and it was like two months in! Then by the 14th episode, they had made it all of the way to the 75th floor and that was it. Forget the top 25 floors, pack it all in, we're going home. They could have done 1 episode per floor and milked 4 seasons out of Aincrad. 
> 
> So, and this is a bit ambitious, I am re-imagining SAO to see what happened in between all of those time skips. I have only watched the animes, I haven't read the light novels, but I've pulled some content from online to beef up the canon world that I know. I'm going to fix up some of the things I think need fixing (For instance, getting rid of that very creepy Sugou ALO arc) and expanding the world that they lived in for so long. We'll follow Kirito in the third person (just seems to be the comfortable way for me to write?) all of the way from the beta test to the End of the World. If I can, I'm going to do an entire episode/chapter per floor. Along with a prologue, a sub-basement arc (with the Fatal Scythe) and either a longer finale or epilogue I'm looking at 100-105 chapters. Again, ambitious, but Covid has me really bored. I will pull content from the rest of Season 1 and the Season 2/GGO spinoff possibly to add some familiar faces. I've already got an idea for Zekkon, but I do not think I want to bring Leafa into this world. 
> 
> But at the same time, I will also write original characters, original guilds, original weapons, original floors, original missions, etc. There's a lot of space to fill up with so many floors, so while the skeleton will be the canon SAO world, I'm going to try to fill in the meat. There were a lot of questions I've always had about the SAO world that I've wanted answered, even stupid minuscule things. For instance, players as blacksmiths. I've never played a game where there's a specific job system, so I've never tried to play a game where I specifically do something like blacksmith the majority of the time, so I was wondering about how and why that happened. I've come up with an answer of there being NPC stores (Weapons Shops, Food stores, etc) that sell basic items, and Player-Run shops that sell specialty ones with magical powers. 
> 
> They lived there for 2 years and there is so much that is unanswered about what life was like in the game, and I'd really like to explore that. So, follow along and let me know what you think! I will do my best to not make it too grind-y, and to keep things switching up.
> 
> Also, obviously I'm going to derail from canon. I know Kirito is 14 at the start, but I'm going to make him 16. Why? Just feels slightly more realistic to me. I've made it 20,000 characters instead of 10,000 because the world definitely seems a lot larger than 10,000. When you consider the people who died, the children who aren't actually playing and more, there's only a couple thousand in the game. At 20,000 characters, that brings the number closer to 10,000 active, which makes for a much more interesting world. I've been in small online games that had guilds with hundreds of people, so for a massive game like this, I want to be able to fill the world. And the more characters there are, the more content and drama and deaths. Oops.

Prologue: The Virtual World

August 18, 2022: Kirito watched as the four legged monster, a Fang, disappeared digitally. The body of the beast pixelated and then shattered like glass. But instead of a pile of shards, the pieces floated into the air; shining like mirrors before disappearing. A command screen popped up, congratulating him on his defeat of the enemy. The young swordsman, clad in a long, black coat, black shirt and black pants, scanned over the screen. He checked out how much Col and XP he had earned for the fight. It didn't actually matter, though, Kirito thought to himself. 

This was just the beta test for a new Virtual Reality game called “Sword Art Online”. It was the first game for a new type of machine, called the NerveGear. The NG actually put the gamer under to fully immerse them in a virtual world. Kirito, or Kirigaya Kazuto (Kiri-gaya, and Kazu-to, Kirito) in the real world, was one of one thousand beta testers who were able to try out this new technology ahead of everyone else. Currently, his real body was laying in his bed in Japan, while his avatar was slaying monsters in the digital world of Aincrad. At the end of the month his account would reset, leaving him with only the knowledge he had gained during the beta to give him an edge over the rest of the new players when the world actually opened in November. 

“What do you think? Harder than the skels?” came a voice from behind Kirito. Argo the Rat, real name Hosaka Carina Tomo, was a small girl with quite an odd skill set for this type of game. She wasn't much of a swordsperson, or a fighter at all. But with games like this, people always needed tips. She was an information broker, trading real life cash or in game Col for tips and tricks. Her character had cat ears and whiskers, but she earned the nickname “The Rat” by the way she moused around for scraps of info. She had lucked out to be one of the beta testers, and even more so, finding Kirito to watch. When the game actually started, she was going to be well ahead of the other brokers.

“They're a lot faster, that's for sure. But the Skels hit harder.” Kirito tapped the command screen to exit out of it, sheathing his sword as he talked to the whiskered trader. There were plenty of people who made their living by coming up with strategies for traders to sell to the common folk. But Kirito wasn't in it for the money, he was in it for the glory. He wanted to be the first one to clear the game, and to have his name cemented in history. Having an info broker that owed you was always a good way to keep at the forefront of a new game. “And the Skels give more Col. So it's kind of a wash.” 

“Fangs are faster than Skels, Skels hit harder and give more Col. Got it! When the game starts up in November I'm going to be so rich! Just don't forget about your favorite info broker when you fly past everyone, ya hear?” The small girl leaned over and flicked her index finger against her thumb, pointing at Kirito before heading off to log out. 

Kirito turned away from the other avatar, looking off into the dungeon. He had spent a good amount of the past 18 days hacking his way to this point, and he was only on the 3rd floor. The game was quite hard, especially with so few people playing. He wasn't much for clans, but the amount of resources and information available depended on how many people were in the game. It's a lot easier to buy a legendary item in a shop than to wait for one to drop yourself. Even so, he had made it farther than anyone. Most of the beta testers were still stuck on the first floor. 

Argo had noticed him early on. She was constantly in the Town of New Beginnings at the start, pestering the other beta testers for info. She had approached Kirito, asking whether she could follow him while he journeyed. “As long as you don't get in my way, and as long as you don't need saving” he told her, and he meant it. He wasn't a hero. He wasn't there to help. Somehow, she had managed to keep up with him.

It was late at night in the real world. But Kirito continued on through the stone corridor, the light from a torch flickering over the stony dungeon walls as he walked on...

November 6th, Noon, 2022: Kazuto brought the bowl of noodles to his room, blowing on it to cool them down. He looked out his window as a couple walked by on the street below. The air was chilly and the leaves had turned beautiful colors, but Kazuto only noticed the whine of the baby in the stroller they were pushing. He smiled, glad that the virtual world didn't have any screaming children. Sitting at his desk as his soup lightly steamed, he picked up the NerveGear helmet to study it. It was such a simple machine, but it had opened up an entire new world for him. 

Kazuto put the helmet down and lifted the bowl to his lips and tilted his head back, drinking some of the soup right off of the top. After a loud slurp, he put the bowl back down, grabbing his chopsticks to start in on his noodles. He put his legs up on his desk, thinking about his strategy for the day. He wanted to get a jump start on everything right out of the gate. While the rest of the players were marveling at the new world, Kirito was going to clear the first dungeon and be well on his way to glory. 

The game set up was likely to have changed from the beta test, but just by how much was anyone's guess. Kazuto drained the rest of his soup before eagerly munching away at his noodles. He thought about everything he had done during the beta test. The paths he took, the monsters he fought, the way to use a weapon skill. He was ready for this. But first, he had to use the bathroom. 

After bringing his soup bowl back to the kitchen and washing it, Kazuto made a pit stop at the bathroom before heading to his room. He thought about knocking on his younger sister's door, but he didn't want to bother her. They had grown apart in recent years, and he didn't have anything major to tell her. After all, he had been diving using the NerveGear since August. It was perfectly safe. He could just talk to her later. 

Stepping back into his room, Kazuto looked at his clock. 12:55. 5 minutes until game time. He looked around his room, making sure it was clean “enough”. His schoolwork on his desk was stacked neatly, his hamper of clothes was put away (in his closet), he was ready. Kazuto picked up his NerveGear helmet, putting the wireless machine over his head. Getting it to work with wireless charging was a coup for the company that made the NG, allowing people to play wherever they were comfortable. Now, they didn't have to be constrained to only playing close to a plug, and the internal battery could keep it going if there was an outtage. The machine was large and covered most of Kazuto's head, with a clear visor in front of his eyes. Until it was turned on, it resembled a motorcycle helmet more than a video game console. Kazuto was already in his pajamas, so he laid down and got comfortable on his bed.

The alarm clock beeped, letting him know it was 1. It was time. He pressed the button on the side of the helmet, a low whirring noise coming from the machine as it booted up. The power symbol turned green, then the battery symbol, and finally, the internet symbol. The NerveGear system was connected and ready. “Link, START!” Kazuto exclaimed.

The visor in front of his eyes immediately burst into color as the technology connected to his brain. He had done this many times before, but each time was awesome. Rainbows of pixels ran by as he was transported into the digital world. The NerveGear scanned his brain, there was no need for passwords. Each person was their own security system, only they could access their character. The screen went black for a moment, making Kazuto wonder if something had gone wrong, when the Sword Art Online logo flashed across the screen. “Welcome!” an announcer exclaimed before Kazuto's avatar began to manifest. He immediately looked down, seeing Kirito's palms and arms in front of him.

Kirito was standing in the Town of New Beginnings, and just as the name sounded, it was the first town in the game. The Town was the biggest in the game, as everyone started from the same place. The spawn point was a large, circular area, surrounded by stone arches. At the center of the circle was a towering statue of Kayaba Akihiko, the game's creator. Beyond that was the Admin Building, where all of the game's FAQs and tutorials resided. Issues could be taken up with a Game Master there. The center was one of the only areas in the Town and buildings filled up most of the rest in a grid pattern. The entire town was surrounded by a towering stone wall. 

Kirito already knew how the game worked and where to go, so he began walking away from the spawn point up a cobble stone path. As he moved from the center of town, avatars spawned to life around him. Most of the new characters were awe struck by the world they had just plunged into, and stood around staring at everything. 

This was where Kirito was going to get ahead of the crowd. As everyone gawked at the graphics and learned how to control their movements, Kirito was already ready to run. He moved to the outer edge of the crowd and began to jog, but he didn't get far. “Hey! Hey, dude!” Came a voice calling after him “Come on, wait up!” A tall guy with long pink hair wrapped in a headband ran towards Kirito, huffing as he caught up. “Man, you really know how to move! You must have been one of the beta testers, running like that! Do you think ya could give a first timer some tips?” he asked, rubbing the back of his head nervously. 

“Ah, I was kinda about to head out” Kirito said, pointing towards the gates to the city. He wanted to get a jump on leveling and finding the floor boss. He was in a race against thousands of other people to reach the top, and plenty of those people were going to clan up. They would have the benefit of players pooling resources and knowledge, but he was going to do it all on his own.

“Aw c'mon! It's the first day, you're not gonna beat the game on the first day, man. I'm Klein, by the way. Just a few tips and I promise I'll leave you be” Klein pleaded, putting both of his hands together to beg. 

Klein was right, he wasn't going to beat the game just today, and he was already well ahead in knowledge than even the other beta testers, so he could help out just a little. “Alright, there's a field outside of the Town of New Beginnings that has some good practice creatures. Let's head over there” Kirito said, waving his hand for Klein to follow him. “I'm Kirito.” 

“Thanks Kiri-dude!” The taller boy exclaimed, following him out of the starting city. “So, how far did ya get in the beta? I heard that most of the people didn't get past the second floor!”

“Yea, it was pretty hard. It took an entire week and a half for anyone to even get past the first floor.” Kirito responded, shirking the first part of Klein's question. Argo the Rat didn't even know everything that he had managed during the beta trial. Nearby, a couple of characters shoved each other and the system blared a warning. “No PVP zone” appeared in front of the brawlers. In invisible barrier pushed the large knight looking character and small cat-girl back from each other. Kirito was thankful for the interruption.

“You're not allowed to fight in towns, even if both characters agree; except in arenas. There were too many games that had people PKing...player killing...in zones that admins didn't want people fighting in” Kirito explained as they walked. “Plus, the walk to the arena often is enough to cool off most tempers.”

“I know what PKing is! Sheesh, this isn't my first game ya know!” Klein interjected, not wanting to sound like a noob. 

“Alright, alright!” Kirito said, waving his hands defensively. The path they were on led out into a great plains-like area. There were grassy fields as far as the eye could see, and land formations that raised up from a skinny base to form islands in the sky. The air was the perfect temperature and there was even a gentle breeze. The optimal settings were meant to help people get used to the new world, and all of the sensations that went with it. Kirito had already gotten a good look at the lands during the beta period, so he was more focused on the enemy in the field. Kirito pointed at a creature that resembled a hog off of the path. 

“There, that's a good starter. Let's see what you've got.” Kirito pulled out his starter sword, the weak weapon feeling light in his hand. 

Klein reached into his scabbard and pulled out a plain saber as well. “Alright, well, like...I used to play gun games?” he said, sounding nervous. He held his sword loosely, swinging it up close to his body as he shrugged with the weapon in hand. 

Kirito realized he was going to have to start from the beginning. “Alright, first you're going to want to get a good grip on your sword. These swords are both one-handed, so hold it in your dominant hand.” Kirito held out his Short Sword in his right hand, showing Klein how to grip it before pulling the sword back behind him. “Then, pull it back like this. You'll feel the energy flow into the sword as you activate a sword skill..” The blade of Kirito's sword began to glow a bright blue. “...and release!” Kirito slashed the blade through the air, the energy from his sword skill dissipating as he struck at the air.

“Whoa-ho! That was so cool!” Klein fanboyed, making Kirito blush a little. “Alright, I think I got it.” he said, nodding his head. “Grip it...” Klein held his sword in front of his body as Kirito had, looking much more confident now. “Drip it...” he brought the sword back behind him, a look of heavy concentration on his face. After a few moments, the blade began to glow red. “And RIP IT!” he yelled, slashing the sword forwards as he activated his first sword skill. 

“Well alright, looks like you're getting the hang of it. Why don't you try it on a real enemy now?” he asked, moving towards the hog. As Kirito got close, the enemy locked on to him and began to engage. Even though he was back at level 1, with a terrible weapon, Kirito had enough skill to manage the beast. He blocked the hogs attack, holding it back with his sword by its tusks. His health declined a little as he continued to block. “Alright Klein, get ready!” Kirito pushed on the hog's snout, pulling his sword away and sending the creature rampaging at the other boy.

Klein looked scared for a second but then steeled himself. He went through the motions again to activate his sword skill. This time he unleashed it on an actual enemy. His sword dragged across the skin of the hog, the digital wound appearing as just a red line where he hit. The hog stopped in midair, and shattered into pixels. A congratulations screen popped up in front of both Kirito and Klein, with Klein getting the lion's share for the finishing blow. 

“Well, there ya go! You're a natural” Kirito called out warmly. He was a good coach, and actually having someone to talk to distracted Kirito from his usual loner behavior. He watched as Klein celebrated, waving his sword around in the air. 

“Alright! Take that ya big beast! Man that looked like a pretty tough enemy, was it some kind of field boss?” Klein asked, getting a bit ahead of himself. Kirito looked around the world, there were plenty of hogs in the starting fields. They were one of the easiest enemies in the game, which was why they were right outside of the starting town. 

“Nah, sorry to burst your bubble but they're actually the weakest.” Kirito pointed his sword towards a duo of hogs in the next field, and more off in the distance. Klein stopped his celebrating and pulled a long face, the glee draining away. 

“Ah, nuts! Oh well, wanna go take on some more?” Klein asked, getting into a battle stance. Kirito wanted to get moving, but he was also still level 1. Getting a couple levels in in the easy fields couldn't hurt. Kirito raised his sword and nodded his head, and the duo took off towards the next group of enemies.

Before he knew it, they had both reached level 3 as Kirito showed Klein the ropes. The sun had started to get a bit low, turning the sky a dazzling spectrum of purples and reds. Aincrad wasn't constrained by the laws of physics, Kayaba had programmed some amazing scenery AIs to make sure that the views were always inspiring.“Man, what time is it? I've got a tzatziki and anchovy pizza coming at 5!” Klein exclaimed as he pulled up the command screen. “Sorry Kirito, I'm going to have to log out for a bit.”

“Thinking ahead there, eh Klein?” Kirito asked as he pulled up his command screen. It was 4:58, he had lost track of time and needed to get back on track. “Well, you better hop off soon or you're going to...what's wrong?” he asked, cutting himself off. Klein had started to look frantic, rushing through the command screens.

“Where's the log out command?!” Klein yelled, opening and closing every option in the command screen. “Is it a voice command? Log Out! Computer, Log Out! Argh, my pizza!” Klein dropped to his knees, making a huge deal out of something small. 

“Relax, you're probably just...huh, that's weird.” Kirito looked through own screen, not seeing the log out button where it definitely should have been. A few seconds later, the screen began to pixelate and Kirito thought that the system logged him out automatically. “Dammit, I didn't want to log out!” he said to himself, but a few seconds later his avatar reappeared.

Kirito and Klein were back in the circle at the Town of New Beginnings. There were plenty of players already there, and more showed up as they wondered what was going on. The players that had been there the longest were the loudest, as more and more players appeared around them. “What's going on?” Kirito asked the nearest person, getting a shrug for his efforts. 

As the computer clock struck 5, an alert notification went out to everyone, blaring loudly through the quiet town. Kirito raised his hands to his ears as the alarm system rang out. “Warning: Important Event Incoming” read the notification, and Kirito exited out of it. All the people that had not already showed up in town seemed to appear at once, the large crowd swelling massively as 20,000 avatars congregated in one spot.

“ANNOUNCEMENT FROM AKIHIKO KAYABA” Boomed a voice from the sky, the cool blue turning into a dark red.

After Kirito and the rest removed their hands from their ears, a much quieter and calmer voice was heard. “Good evening. I am Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of Sword Art Online. Welcome, to the Town of New Beginnings. 20,000 of you have logged on so far, and I have brought all 20,000 of you here for this announcement.”

Kirito shifted nervously. What was Kayaba, the creator of the game, doing bringing them all here like this? Why were they not able to log out? “By now, many of you have realized that the 'log out' feature is not available in the command screen. You can check now if you wish, but I promise you, this is not a bug. In fact, it is the most important feature of Sword Art Online. You may not log out of the game.”  
A collective gasp went up from twenty thousand players. The gasp soon turned to a dull roar as the gamers started to get mad. 

“Hey, this isn't funny!”  
“What do you mean we can't log out? I have work!”  
“Is this part of the game? I don't get it!”  
“Oh man, what a great troll!”   
“What's the big idea? Why would you do something like that?!”

Soon, the crowd was trying to move, trying to leave the circle. Those on the outside found that an invisible barrier had been put up, and they weren't able to move past a certain point. This didn't stop people from pushing them that way, and fights nearly broke out.

“SILENCE!” Boomed the disembodied announcer's voice, quieting the crowd and scaring them into settling before Kayaba's voice returned. “There is no need to panic. You should feel honored to take part in this experiment. As we speak, news is being released to the world about this.” Several TV monitors appeared hovering in the air, showing news stations from around the world reporting on the “SAO situation”. 

“This will be your life from here on out, until you complete the game. When the final boss on floor 100 is defeated, you have my word that you will all be released. However...” The voice continued menacingly “If you die in the game, you will die in real life.” This time, there was no collective gasp, the crowd too shocked or disbelieving. 

“T-there's...no way! That's impossible!” Klein gasped out to Kirito, who looked just as shocked. 

“You may notice that some of you have already disappeared from your number. As we speak, two hundred and thirteen players have left you due to their family or friends trying to remove their NerveGear helmets. Let me be clear, the only way to leave this game is to defeat the final boss.” Kayaba continued.

More screens popped up, reporting on the deaths of gamers. The sky was full of floating monitors, and those were only the ones that had made the news. Kirito looked around, noticing an avatar pixelating into oblivion across the crowd from him. “There's no way that could happen! How could a game console hurt us?” Klein yelled at the sky, the source of the booming voice.

“It's possible. The NerveGear uses electricity to stimulate your brain, if Kayaba tampered with the programming in some way, it could send a fatal jolt right into your nervous system.” Kirito said grimly. Klein recoiled, looking horrified. Kirito thought about the wireless charging system, the one he had thought was genius. Now, it was their downfall. There was no connection to sever, as long as the wireless grid in Japan stayed up, they were connected. 

“Now, I have left a present in your inventory, please open it up.” Kayaba continued.

Kirito's item screen popped up without him doing anything, with one item appearing above the ones he had earned earlier with Klein. He raised his hand but before he could touch it the item was brought up and appeared in his hand. He looked at the ornate, golden mirror he was holding when it flashed a bright white. When Kirito could see again, he was no longer holding a mirror and his hands felt a bit smaller. 

“What happened, Kirito?” asked an orange-haired, scruffy guy standing next to him. “Wait, who are you? Where'd Kirito go?” he asked, pointing directly at Kirito.

“What the...I am Kirito, who are you? Klein?” he asked/argued back. He put his hand to his face and then his hair, feeling a familiar length. Somehow, the mirror had changed his chosen appearance and made him...like he was in the real world? 

Across the circle, the small cat girl and the large knight who had been arguing changed back to their actual appearances. The small cat girl turned into a large bald man, and the large knight turned into a teen girl as the two of them gaped at each other.

“It is important that you remember who you truly are, you may be here awhile. Welcome, gamers, to Sword Art Online!” Kayaba ended his sweeping announcement, leaving the gamers in a state of confusion.

Just as quickly as the sky had turned red, it reverted back to its shining blue. There was a moment of silence as everyone thought about what to do before things began to erupt. The barrier that had held them all in was down and plenty of people began rushing out every which way. Some children stood in place, crying as people rushed around them. Their parents had not yet logged in, and they were stuck here, alone. Plenty of adults stayed frozen in place as well, paralyzed by the fear of what they had just heard.

But not Kirito. Kirito grabbed Klein by the wrist and pulled him away from being trampled. There were plenty of ways around the Town of New Beginnings, and they were going to have to take some back ways to get through. “Come on! We have to get to the next town and stay ahead of everyone. There's a limited amount of resources in the game that renew, but the longer we wait the further we fall behind.” He pulled the tall, goofy guy along after him until Klein put on the brakes.

“I'm sorry, Kirito. I can't come with you. I've got friends here that came over from another game. We all said we were going to play together. They're somewhere in town, probably scared, and I gotta find them first. I know you said you don't like clanning, so I won't ask ya. But, do ya think...” Klein looked down dejectedly “...Just, stay safe out there.” He finished. 

Kirito was at a loss for words as well. He was only 16, he didn't know how to handle this any better than anyone else here. People had died, disappearing from the same room his avatar was standing in. His brain hadn't even begun to start to process that, all it knew was that he had to move forward. “The next town is right up the path out of the gate, it's called Horunka. I'll look for you there, but I'm going to keep moving. Klein I....I hope I see you” he said, clenching his fist before turning away to run. 

Kirito had to keep moving. He joined this game to be the best, to be the one to win. Now, that meant being the one to free everyone. He had to do it, he had to save everyone from this death game. Pulling out his sword as he rushed through the side gate of the town, he barreled off into a forest, slashing at every monster that stood in his way.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Floor 1: Stuck in the game, Kirito leaves the Town of New Beginnings and heads for Horunka. He levels up and upgrades his gear, easily making it to the next town. Not everyone is so lucky, and Kirito watches as people make the trek. Klein and his group make it and Kirito heads off again. After a few days, no one has found the dungeon boss and things are moving at a grinding pace. Kirito meets up with Argo again, although he doesn't recognize her at first. She tells him about a meeting in Tolbana to share information to find the floor boss and heads off. 
> 
> Kirito gets to Tolbana and joins the meeting, seeing Argo again. She keeps popping up around him. A man named Diavel leads the group, and everyone shares information. A spiky haired guy named Kibaou gets angry about Kirito and Argo being beta testers, but a kind man named Agil calms Kibaou down. 
> 
> No one finds the quest for the mountain until Argo mentions to Kirito about the weird NPC kids. They follow them and find the quest, opening up Illfang the Kobold Lord's lair. But the boss battle is not as easy as the mini boss...

Chapter 1 – Floor 1 – The Town of New Beginnings – November 7, 2022

November 7, 2022: Kirito spent the rest of the night slashing his way through monsters, fighting with a vigor he never had before. Now, every swing of his sword was for his life. No longer could he just resurrect from a spawn point, he had to be careful. Kirito was quite the gamer, but this early stage was always critical. When players had bad gear, no potions, and were still learning how to play, that was when they were most vulnerable. The leveling system in MMORPGs always started off so low, he wouldn't be safe until he had put some levels between him and the monsters on this floor. 

By the time Kirito stepped into Horunka, his inventory was full of low level items and a decent smattering of Col. The small village was a ghost town, not even an NPC in sight as he stepped in. Kirito found his way to an item shop, the wooden sign that hung in front of the store displaying the familiar 'potion' shaped item sign. After selling off the load of crappy swords and armors that were weighing him down, Kirito headed off to upgrade his gear.

Pickings were slim this early in the game. He could afford the best items, but they weren't much better than the starters. The stats were increased a little, but there were no special abilities like during the beta. The player-ran blacksmiths must be the ones to craft the enchanted equipment, Kirito realized, and because there wasn't enough time for the beta testers to become good blacksmiths, the game had just put those items into the shop instead. This was going to put a damper on his leveling, he had been hoping for a higher level weapon to get him through the lower levels quicker. 

As he left the weapon shop, he saw another player walking through the town. It wasn't Klein, but some girl! Or at least, he assumed they were a girl, they were wearing a red hood but their long, white stockinged legs were very feminine. They made no attempt to talk to Kirito as they stepped up to an inn and disappeared inside. Kirito thought about stopping off at the inn, but he wasn't sleepy. One of the things he had noticed about the NerveGear was that he didn't get so tired from using it. His body wasn't working, only his brain, so he needed less sleep after long use than if he had been walking around for real all day. With no special weapons to buy, he was going to have to grind twice as hard.

Kirito left Horunka as the sun began to rise, his new items equipped. He was eager to add some XP to his total. Walking off into the forest, he found his first group of enemies, a weak pair of slime characters. The jello-looking monsters wobbled back and forth uselessly before Kirito's new weapon cut them down handily, although it took almost as many swings as his original sword would have. It wasn't until he exited out of the victory screen that he noticed the glowing creature behind the bush. Kirito circled around it, seeing another slime, but this one was a luminous green color. 

The slime squirted something towards Kirito, and he just managed to jump back in time. The ground in front of him turned black as the grass died, the poison from the slime eating away at the surroundings. There hadn't been any special enemies in the beta test, only bosses! Kirito was going to have to be careful, the way the slime glowed and ate away at the grass made him realize it would cause a status ailment, and he didn't have any Antidotes yet. 

Kirito danced around the sludgey creature, jumping side to side to get it to shoot its attack at him. He was judging the distance and speed that it could fire so he could plan his attack. Getting his timing down, he waited for the creature to shoot before rushing in to attack it with two strikes. He jumped back quickly, just avoiding the next sludge. He continued this until finally his last hit connected and the creature pixelated, the congratulations screen popping up.

“You have (1) new item!” The screen announced, and Kirito clicked it, bringing up the item screen. “Necklace of Protection, 10% protection from poison”. It wasn't much, but Kirito equipped it. A thin metal chain appeared around Kirito's neck, and he tucked it under his black shirt. Everything now was something important. That 10% could be the difference between life and death now, not just living versus respawning. But if this was what it was going to take to get better items, he was in for a long road. 

By the time Kirito stepped out of the forest again, the monsters were no longer respawning. He had picked the area clean, for now. There was a band of people walking up to Horunka, and he stayed behind a tree as he watched them file in. They looked shaken and fearful, like soldiers marching in from war. Kirito realized they had probably lost someone already. The first floor of the floating castle was already a graveyard, a digital resting place for all of those who didn't make it.

Kirito balled his fist and punched a tree, the knock sending vibrations through the timber and knocking a fruit down from a branch. It bounced off of Kirito's head and landed at his feet, pixelating just like a defeated enemy. He rubbed at the spot that it had hit, looking up into the branches. He hadn't eaten anything in the game yet, and his stomach felt weird. Did the game seriously simulate hunger?

Kirito found himself cursing Kayaba as he pulled his sword from the sheath. Pulling it back, he activated a sword skill and unleashed it on the tree. Instead of cutting through however, it rattled the thick base until there was a rumbling from overhead. A shower of fruit rained down on Kirito and he had to cover his head from being assaulted. After losing a little HP to the downfall, he picked up a few of them, putting most in his inventory but lifting one to his lips to taste. 

It was crisp, and the flavor resembled a peach. However, after chewing on it Kirito was horrified to find out that it disappeared in his mouth. He could even feel the moment it turned from “food” to “pixels”. Of everything, that was going to take the most getting used to. While he didn't get the satisfaction of feeling the sustenance fill his stomach, he was delighted to see that eating had replaced his lost HP. He made a mental note to make sure to eat this time around before heading back into town. 

As the first day went on, there was a slow trickle of people into Horunka. Most came in groups, with very few solo players making it out this way. Not a single person continued past Horunka, with most seeming like they were just happy to have made it that far. Kirito wanted to stay ahead of the masses, but he couldn't move on until he knew that Klein had made it. 

Kirito went back out into the area surrounding the village to fight several more times. By the time the sun began to go down that night, he was already level 5. He had only been level 9 when he made it through the first floor in the beta, but something told him that that wouldn't be enough this time. It wasn't until the last rays of the day began to disappear that a group showed up in the distance. Kirito stood at the entrance to town until they came into view, the scruffy, spikey haired Klein leading the way. He had made it, and his friends were with him.

Kirito waited for the group to trudge up to the entrance, stepping to Klein to see how he was. “I'm glad you listened and came out this way. You guys didn't...lose anyone, right?” He looked up to see Klein shake his head. “There's already a lot of areas being cleared and falling behind with levels is going to put you at a disadvantage. Plus, there's a lot of things different now than in the beta” he continued.

Klein looked beat, and his group looked worse, but he responded happily to Kirito “It wasn't easy getting here, we had some close calls. But check it out, we made a clan!” Klein turned to show his HP Bar, the symbol of the Fuurinkazan appearing above his health. 

Kirito forced a smile, he knew that it was good for someone like Klein to have a group with him. From the looks of it, though, he was the leader. “Awesome, you guys are going to need to stay close if you want to survive. This town is another safe spot, and there's a weapons shop where you can get some better armor.” Kirito didn't have a reason to stay in town anymore. He had wanted to make sure Klein was alive, and he was. He had to move on now, so he turned to leave.

A hand shot out to grab his arm. “Kirito!” Klein exclaimed, holding him back. “You don't have to do everything alone you know.” Klein let go of Kirito's arm, but continued pleading. “It was really hard out there and there are 6 of us, I don't know how you got here by yourself, but we can always help!” Klein's voice wavered. Whatever had happened out there, it had been rough.

Kirito couldn't bring himself to look back. He didn't want anyone relying on him, not after he had let down his younger sister. He couldn't...”Sorry, Don't worry about me. I'll be fine.” He took a few steps before stopping and clenching his fists. “Be safe, make smart decisions, if you gotta hang back, hang back. Just survive.” And with that, he raced off again. 

November 10th, 2022, early morning: Kirito woke up in an inn in the Town of New Beginnings. After several days, he had only reached level 8, and none of the players had been able to find the floor boss yet. There had already been an unfathomable number of casualties. Some happened from losing in the game, but others...some people just couldn't handle the game. Kirito had come back to the Town to see if there was any information. The Town had been made large enough to hold all of the players, but villages like Horunka filled up quite fast. At least here, Kirito could get his own room. 

He stood up and equipped his clothes, his plain, all black outfit appearing over his digital body instantly. He missed the items from his beta; boots that gave him extra speed, and a jacket that gave him extra inventory. So far, he only had the basics but that was better than most. The game was large, but there was only one floor in play at the moment, and 20,000 players. Almost half of them hadn't even left the Town of New Beginnings yet, in various stages of shock. The thousands who had, had to fight for the kills they got. Kirito had gotten lucky, getting so far out ahead that he was able to fight the harder enemies before the rest. 

With a pocket full of gold, and nothing to spend it on, Kirito headed into town. There was an NPC bakery that was open, but it was only stocked with basic items. As with the blacksmiths, the specialty items could only be made by human characters with high enough skills. But still, bread was better than nothing. And it kept the hunger meter down. 

That was something that wasn't in the beta as well. Originally, food just helped with buffs, like a special potion. But now, a new meter had appeared. Kirito found out that if he didn't eat, his hunger meter went up. At a certain point, it began to eat away at his HP. Nothing major, but it was worth watching and keeping down. 

Kirito stepped into the shop, and the bell above the door rang. Everyone turned to look, except for the last person in line. The girl in the red hood. Kirito took his place in line, slowly shuffling forward as each person received their order. 

When the girl in the red hood stepped up, she didn't say anything. Kirito watched as she raised one finger, and the NPC beamed, handing her a small loaf of bread. The girl dropped a 100-Col coin on the counter and it disappeared. “Thank you, come again!” the NPC said in a cheery voice, turning to Kirito to take his order. He got himself two loaves, paying his coins for his digital dough, and then took his meal outside. The girl in the red hood had already disappeared, so Kirito sat at a nearby fountain to eat. He set aside one of the loaves in his inventory for later, starting in on the first. 

Coins shimmered from the bottom of the fountain, no doubt cast there by people making wishes. It had been a tough few days for everyone. Fights broke out, food was scarce, and there were kids without parents in the game. No one had prepared for this, and they were all coming up with it on the fly. The kids had all been gathered up, but no one was sure if they got them all. There were no master lists for them to go from. The coins from the wishing well were gathered each day to buy food for the children. A kind woman named Sasha volunteered to watch over them. She hadn't even wanted to play this game in the first place, but now that she was here, she felt a duty to the children. They all had to make the best of this. The sun shone down on Kirito as he finished up his bread, flicking a coin into the fountain before he stood up.

Flyers covered the walls of the long stone corridors of the town. People looking for their loved ones that they were separated from. Information brokers looking to trade. Guilds looking for new members. Kirito picked up a fallen flyer advertising for the Fuurinkazan guild. “Wind, Woods, Fire, Mountain. Join Fuurinkazan and help clear Aincrad! Looking for players levels 3+.” He pressed it back up against the wall, where it stayed. He wanted Klein to have all the help he could get.

“Still haven't found the dungeon boss yet, eh?” came a familiar voice from behind Kirito. He whipped his head around to see an unfamiliar woman, with drawn on whiskers. She was about his height and had a headband on, with two strips of fabric sewn in to it to look like cat ears. “What's wrong, don't tell me you don't recognize me? After all that time we spent together in the beta. Hmph!”

“A-Argo?” Kirito asked, taking a step back out of surprise. He remembered the mirror that Kayaba had tricked everyone with. During the beta test, Kirito's character was a few inches taller, and Argo's was a few inches shorter. Now, they were looking eye to eye. Her real face wasn't as mousey as her avatar's had been, she was actually kind of pretty. “N-No that's not it I...I...” Kirito began to stammer, waving his hands back and forth in front of his chest.

Argo stopped, her whiskered face stony as she glared at Kirito before breaking out into a smile. She snapped her fingers, pointing at him as she laughed. “Gotcha! You boys in these games are so easy to toy with. She raised her hand to her mouth to keep from laughing. “That's why I go with the mousey look. Boys still want to help out a girl, but if I showed my regular face you'd spend all the time hitting on me instead of helping out.”

Kirito's cheeks went bright red, “That's not true! I didn't help you out because you're a girl!” Kirito's head was steaming and he pulled at the collar of his shirt. He was sinking fast and needed a lifeline. “So what do you want Argo? If you don't know where the floor boss is then no one does.”

“Darn right!” The girl beamed, closing her eyes for a moment. “And what's the matter, a girl can't say 'Hi' to an old friend?” Kirito didn't have many friends in the game. He was guild-less and his friend list was empty. “Well, anyway. I wanted to make sure that you knew about the meeting in Tolbana on Sunday.”

“Huh? What meeting is that?” Kirito was confused. Aside from the NPCs and Klein, Kirito hadn't spoken to many people since the game started. 

“See, this is why you gotta keep me around!” Argo smirked, the drawn on whiskers on her face arching up. “This guy, Diavel, had an idea to get all of the guilds and best players together to share information and hopefully find the dungeon boss soon. Its pretty cramped, and we all can't move on until that happens. Though, I figure without you, they're gonna be kinda hopeless.” 

The redness from Kirito's cheeks rushed to his ears instead. Was Argo, hitting on him? 

“Tolbana, Sunday. Be there!” Argo turned and rushed off, leaving Kirito confused as to what had just happened. He had never planned to make friends in the game, much less 'meet' someone. But then again, he also never planned on being stuck in the game 24-7. There were a lot of things from the real world that he was going to have to get used to in the virtual world, as this was his reality for now. 

Kirito left the Town of New Beginnings by the main path, heading across the land to Tolbana. The trek was about a day's journey, and he'd have to find some food along the way to keep from going hungry. He couldn't live on bread for forever. 

At his current level, there weren't any enemies that could do him much harm, and the experience he could gain was negligible so he kept his sword sheathed. He was ready to move quickly in case any enemies appeared. He rather leave them to the lower level characters, who would actually benefit from defeating them. Walking along, Kirito looked up at the sky. If there was anything good to say about being stuck in Aincrad, it was that it was beautiful. Kayaba had trapped them in a work of art. Clouds of a light pink with yellow trim floated lazily against an impossible blue sky. 

Kirito passed roving groups of characters, mostly lower level clans that were still getting the hang of things. Every day, more and more people finally got up to leave the Town of New Beginnings for the first time, not wanting to be stuck here forever. Kirito was thankful. At first, he had wanted to be the one to clear the game. It was just a silly thing, being the first one to get through it. But now, it had the added responsibility of freeing everyone. He still wanted to win..but having others trying was important too. 

As Kirito continued on the path, he noticed a cloud of smoke heading for him on the trail. As it got closer, he could see what was causing it. A cow was running along the dirt path, on a direct line towards Kirito. He was about to jump out of the way when he noticed a person running behind the cow. “Stop! Please stop that cow!” the man cried as he tried to keep up. 

Kirito grit his teeth. This sounded like a mission. He reached over his shoulder and pulled out his sword. A shield would have been better suited for this type of thing, but he didn't have one, so he was going to have to make do. Holding the blade out flat with both hands, he got into a wide stance. In the real world, an animal like this would run him over like nothing. But in the virtual world, as long as his level was high enough...

CLANG!

The cow's head crashed against Kirito's sword, sending him skidding back against the dirt. He traveled a few feet before he finally dug in, bringing the cow to a halt. The large beast snorted and then stopped, waiting for the man chasing it to arrive. The NPC was a large, moustached man wearing brown pants with suspenders over a white top, and a yellow straw hat. 

“Oh, thank you so much stranger!” the NPC huffed as it finally made its way to Kirito. “Bessie here got loose from the pen. I didn't think I'd ever be able to stop her! Here, a little something to thank you!” The farmer reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled his hand out, with nothing in it.

A command screen popped up in front of Kirito. “Congratulations! You have completed the quest “Don't have a cow, man” You have received (1) jar of Butter!” Kirito exited out of the screen and the item automatically placed itself in his inventory. The NPC put a collar around the cow and began to lead it away. “Thanks again!” he called as he walked off. 

“Butter...what a weird reward” Kirito thought to himself as he stood there. At least now he had something to put on his bread. That had been quite the awkward encounter, but importantly, it had been a quest. Kayaba didn't just build a world that had dungeons attached. Everything was part of it. They were going to have to look a lot harder to find the entrance to the first floor dungeon.

November 13, 2022: The Inn was packed quite full, but Kirito had splurged to have a room to himself. The best players and top guilds had converged on Tolbana, eager to take part in finding the dungeon boss, and the ensuing raid. Klein and the Fuurinkazan had made it to Tolbana, the group of six packed into the room next door. He had seen the red hooded girl, and Argo as well. Most of the people were in groups of three or more by now. 

Kirito head out to Tolbana's only bakery, getting his daily loaves. He went and sat in the amphitheater where the meeting would take place later. It was quite a large space, and Kirito thought about all of the fun things that could have happened there if this had just been a game. Character cosplay shows. Special events. Musicals. Instead, they were planning the fight of their lives. Kirito opened his item screen and pulled out the jar of butter he had won, the digital dairy appearing on the seat next to him.

“Watcha got there?” Came a voice from behind him, followed quickly by a body landing on the space next to him. Kirito turned to find Argo looking back at him. The young woman always sprang up out of nowhere, and Kirito had no idea how she got around so quietly. 

“It's butter. There's a quest called “Don't have a Cow, Man” on the road to Tolbana, but I'm not sure how often it appears. This was the reward.” Kirito looked at the jar of butter and then back at his whiskered acquaintance. “Here, try some” he said, pulling up his inventory and getting his extra loaf. He tossed the bread to the broker before bumping the butter closer as well. 

Argo caught the bread and looked at him, confused but happy. She placed her hand over the butter jar, her finger glowing white, before bringing it to the bread. A fresh smear of butter appeared on the bread, and her lips curled into a smile like Kirito hadn't seen before. The girl leaned in and scarfed the loaf of bread faster than he thought possible. “Oh, I've missed tasty foods so much!” she whined.

Kirito was starting to agree. So far, none of the players had raised their cooking level high enough, so they were all still left with just the basic NPC food. Along with some forage-able food from the forests, there weren't many choices. The prize jar of butter was the closest to home that Kirito had felt in the past week. He added some to his own loaf and then chowed down.

Argo had put her arms down at her side, looking up into the sky. “So, do ya think we're ever going to make it out of here?” she asked him, oddly personal for how little they had actually talked so far.

“I mean, I hope we do. There's a lot of very good gamers in here, one of us would have beat it at some point anyway, right? And now we've all got the added motivation of playing for our lives. I think we can do it.” Kirito needed to hold on to the hope that it was possible. He wanted to be able to see the real world again, to see his friends, his family and even his sister. “Are you...”

Before Kirito could ask his question, other people began to file into the amphitheater. Most of them came in groups, and sat up close to the front of the stage. Everyone was in plain clothes and starting gear, with very few embellishments. It was hard to tell, from this, that these were the best players the game had to offer. 

The lower levels of the amphitheater filled up, leaving Kirito alone in the top row with Argo. Klein and his clan were there, and the red hooded girl was sitting alone as well. Kirito noticed some of the faces he had seen in the Town of New Beginnings, but no one that he was on speaking terms with yet. A blue haired guy stepped up to the front, waving his hands for people to quiet down. 

“Alright everyone, my name is Diavel! And in this game, the job title that I hold is knight!” Diavel raised his hand and thumped his chest firmly, eliciting laughs from the crowd. 

“There's no job system in this game, ya noob!” Came a voice from somewhere in the mass of people.

“I know, I know. But it's up to us, the strongest players in the game, to clear it, so everyone can get out. It looks like we're here to stay, and the only way we're going to win is if we work together!” There was a smattering of boos from a couple of the guilds, and Diavel waved his hands again. “Now, I know that that is what guilds are for, but we're all still stuck on Floor 1, and we're not going to get much farther like this.”

Kirito leaned his arms on his knees, listening intently. Diavel was right, with all of the characters stuck on 1 floor, things were crowded. Once they got to the second floor, that would open things up a little. Kirito wasn't going to level up much higher with the weak enemies on this floor. The game had an exponential level system, so you had to keep fighting harder and harder enemies if you wanted to advance in levels. 

Argo spoke up, surprising Kirito. “In the beta, the dungeon was in the mountain. But there was a big open gate at the front. It's not there anymore, though.” She said, sounding a bit dejected. Kirito hadn't expected Argo, an information broker, to offer up something for free. 

Her admission inspired him, and he spoke up after her “It might be a quest. In the beta, everything was open so we could get through it, but now there are all of these quests. Akihiko Kayaba didn't program anything into this world at random, so he'll probably have hidden whatever makes the gate appear as a quest.” There was a smattering of agreement, but before anyone else could speak up, a spiky haired man jumped forward.

“ARGH, You're beta testers?!” He pointed towards Argo and Kirito, who had inconveniently separated themselves from the group. “You guys are cheaters, you knew about all of the good hunting spots at the beginning and went off on your own, leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves!” There was some mumbles of agreement, but a lot of disagreement. “They should step forward and apologize! And give us their Col!” Kirito clenched his fists, was he about to be part of a digital lynch mob? Before the crowd could get riled up, a tall, bald man stepped forward. 

“Hey, Can I say something? My name's Agil.” The black man's voice was deep and calming. “What's yours?”

“I'm Kibaou!” replied the spike.

“Nice to meet you Kibaou. So, just to make sure, you're saying that the beta testers left everyone high and dry, and you think they should pay for us being stuck here?” Agil reached into his pocket and pulled out a manual. He held it up for all to see. “Did you get one of these in the Town of New Beginnings?” 

Kibaou crossed his arms, looking grumpy. “Yeah, what of it?”

“Well, it was the ex-beta testers that were handing them out. These weren't made by the game company, the beta testers got together and made them themselves. They did everything they could to make sure people have the same knowledge they do. It isn't their fault we're here. It's Kayaba's.”

The shorter guy looked deflated and went back to sit down. Agil, having defused the situation, went back to the crowd as well. Diavel started back up.

“Alright, I like the way you guys think. Everyone, focus on that mountain. There has to be a quest that unlocks the entrance. When you find it, regroup back here so we can form a raiding party. Once we get through the first floor, everyone can go back to their clans and guilds. Does that sound good?”

The crowd nodded along in general agreement. There were some detractors, a few people even stood up and walked out in the middle of it. There was something about them that didn't sit right with Kirito, but he was more worried about the people that were still there. There were still a few eyes on him after Kibaou's outburst. Kirito and Argo left the amphitheater quickly, walking through town.

“So, have you heard any information about a quest near the mountain yet?” Kirito pressed the info broker for information. If anyone had found something relevant, she had to know.

Argo stretched her arms out wide, making a light moaning noise as she yawned. “Nope, not a thing yet. Wanna party up for a little bit and go searching?” She brought her arms back in, leaning over towards Kirito as they walked. She brought up her command screen and tapped away at it. A moment later, a notification appeared in front of Kirito. 

“Would you like to party with Argo?” Y ( ) N( )”

She had sprung it on him and caught him off guard. He didn't exactly want to party with anyone, but he didn't want to have her get mad at him either. He clicked the Y, deciding that he could always leave the party later. 

“Looks like you're stuck with me for a little!” She exclaimed, nudging Kirito's arm. He had spent a bunch of time with her during the beta, but they didn't really talk. She watched him battle, and asked him some questions about the enemies, and that was it. He didn't even know anything about her. During the beta, he thought she was young but now that she was the same height as him...Was she older than him?

They left town and walked towards the mountain. It was visible from Tolbana, its large spire engulfed in the clouds. During the beta, there had just been an open gate at the front of the mountain to walk right in. Kayaba had been testing out the players, not the system, Kirito realized. He had allowed everyone to speed run to see that they had the skill, and now he had thrown up all of the obstacles. Something had to open that mountain.

November 17, 2022: It had been three days since the group set off to focus on the mountain, and they still had not found the quest or entrance. Kirito lay on the floor of his hotel room, having gained a roommate in Argo. The girl was splayed out under the covers of the bed snoring loudly. Kirito had woken up half an hour ago, but he didn't want her to think that he did anything weird while she was still asleep, so he waited for her to wake up first. 

After Argo finally got up and equipped her clothes, she rolled over and laughed at Kirito. “You know, I said its fine if you want to sleep in the bed. It's your room after all.” Kirito's ears went bright red. Even though his avatar was “his” body, it wasn't the real thing. That was laying somewhere, probably in a hospital, hooked up to tubes. Aside from that, avatars didn't have...ahem...plumbing. Also, Kirito wanted to be a gentleman. 

“It's fine. Even the floors in this world are kind of comfortable, and I don't need much sleep anyway.” He stood up and stretched out, pulling up his item screen. He had reached level 10, but his XP gain had slowed to a complete crawl. He hadn't made much headway in terms of gear either. He had upgraded his sword to one with a mild buffer for power, but it was still a D-class weapon. “The Iron Gladius of Power”, not a very fear inspiring name for a sword. There were very few C-class weapons that had been found, and none that gave any kind of actual advantage. He had only seen one other 'special' enemy, and he couldn't wait to get to the next floor. He was aching to get his hands on some better arms.

Leaving the Inn, Kirito and Argo walked to the bakery. Argo offered to pay for the food today, so Kirito waited outside, watching the people as they passed. There was a group of NPC kids that ran by, playing a game with a ball. As they ran past, Argo stepped outside and handed Kirito a loaf of bread. “I don't get why Kayaba programmed kids into the game. It's super weird.” 

Kirito went to bite into his bread when he had a realization. It WAS pretty weird that Kayaba had programmed kids in as NPCs. “You're a genius, Argo! HEY! WAIT!” Kirito yelled and ran off after the kids, leaving Argo a few steps behind. Kirito chased after the young NPCs as they ran through the village. They didn't make it easy on him, ducking and turning through every shortcut they could. But Kirito pressed on.

They were clear across town when Kirito finally caught them. “Hey, where did you guys get that ball?” Kirito asked, pointing at the bone white sphere the lead child was holding. 

“We found it, and finders keepers!” the headstrong girl said, sticking out her tongue at Kirito. Argo came running up, completely out of breath and looking like she was going to collapse. She sat against a wall to catch her breath. Kirito watched her out of the corner of his eye, not wanting to lose the children. 

“That's alright. But if it was something you found by the mountain, it may have been worth a lot of Col. But I can see that you guys want to play with it instead, I'll leave you alone.” Kirito turned, starting to walk away from the children.

“Wait, Mister! How much? I mean, how much if we did find it by the mountain?” the girl asked, as the two younger boys threw the orb back and forth in the background. 

Kirito smiled. Kayaba really had put in a crazy amount of detail to this game. Even in the personalities of the NPCs, it didn't feel like he was speaking to an AI or robot at all. Kirito brought up his command screen, making a bag of 5,000 Col. It wasn't a lot when compared to how much he had, but for day to day life in the game it was quite a bit. 

“If you guys show us where you got it, you can have this much.” Kirito sent the command over to the NPC, and the young girl's eyes lit up. 

“Of course we can take you Mister, come on!” She waved her hand at Kirito frantically, and then began running again. A quest notification popped up in front of Kirito, notifying him that he had stumbled upon “The Boneyard” quest. Kirito grabbed Argo by her arm and yanked her from her seat, in hot pursuit of the kids. This was the quest, he could feel it. 

The children led them out of town, to a wooded area near the base of the mountain. There was a layer of leaves covering the ground, and the girl kicked them up with her feet, revealing steps descending into the earth. “We were playing and saw something in there. I went inside and got this, but when we heard voices we ran, and I covered it up with leaves.” 

That explained why no one could find it, Kirito thought to himself. He looked at the Orb, there was no way that it was just a ball of some sort. It was important. “Do you think I could have that? I think we're going to need it to get in.” 

The girl looked at the white sphere and shrugged. The 5,000 Col would buy them a bunch of balls, this one wasn't even good for games. She tossed it to Kirito and the kids ran back off towards town. Kirito shrugged at Argo and led the way down into the cavern. There was an unlit torch in a holder at the entrance, and Kirito swung his blade at the rocks. The sparks lit the torch, bathing the room in a yellow light. 

Kirito picked up the torch and turned to Argo, “Stay behind me, and if you have to run, run.” He could take care of himself, but if something happened to her...he didn't want to think about it. Argo nodded and gave him room. 

The cavern was thin at first, but opened up as he got deeper inside. The light from the torch didn't reach the edges, so they had no idea what lurked in the shadows. The floor was rocky, and shifted underneath them as they moved. Kirito wasn't moving at his usual speed either. He brought the torch down, finding out that it wasn't rocks they were standing on, it was bones covered in a thick layer of webbing. Something shifted in the dark, its padded feet making dull thumping sounds as it began to move. Kirito raised his hand in defense of Argo, unable to tell where an attack was coming from. 

At the last moment, he sensed it and pushed Argo backwards. The two of them fell over as a spider the size of a small car came crashing down. It reared up two of its front legs, exposing its fangs before snapping at Kirito's feet. The young swordsman reacted, rolling backwards and pulling Argo away. The girl got up and pulled out her sword and shield, ready to assist Kirito. 

“Just stay near the entrance and keep on defense. Switch in when I need to heal!” Argo nodded, and Kirito went on the offense. Pulling his sword from over his shoulder, he stabbed at the arachnid to send it backwards. 

The spider chittered, speaking with a human voice “Foolish humans, following children wherever. Don't you know your legends?” Kirito had no idea what connection the children had to the mountain, but apparently they had led him into trap. It didn't matter though, this spider was standing in his way of getting out and he was going through anything that stood in front of him.

Instead of monologuing with a VR spider monster, Kirito went on the attack. He let loose a ferocious volley of slashes, and when the hairs settled, the body of the spider was sitting on the floor, legless. Kirito had gotten to a higher level than the mini-boss, which was surprisingly weak. The creature squealed as Kirito rose his sword over his head, delivering the finishing blow. 

A congratulations screen popped up in front of Kirito and Argo, who turned towards each other and shrugged. Maybe the floor boss would be just as easy? Kirito got a healthy amount of Col, even after what he had given the children, and a little XP, although it didn't put much of a dent in the distance to the next level. 

“You have (1) new item! Anti-slip boots” Kirito pulled up the item description. His new boots were 10% less likely to be affected by slow or environmental hazards. Again, it was better than nothing, so Kirito equipped them. As the last of the spider pixelated away, a plinth appeared at the center of the room. Kirito pulled out the ball he had gotten from the kids and placed it on the pedestal. The ground began to shake almost immediately. Kirito didn't waste any time, and turned to run, seeing that Argo was already ahead of him. They rushed out of the cavern as dirt began to drop from the ceiling. The cavern imploded just as they got back out to the surface.

The pair looked up at the mountain. A crack had formed near the base and it soon rose twenty feet into the air, dividing a large portion of the face. The mountain began to split apart, the stone curling away to reveal an entrance. They had found it, finally. Argo smacked Kirito against his arm, hard, “You did it ya big doof!” She followed up her rough housing with a much softer hug, grabbing Kirito happily and wrapping her arms around him. They were one step closer to getting out of Aincrad. “Come on, let's get back to town for the raiding party!”

November 20, 2022: It took some time for all of the characters to make their way back to Tolbana, and there was nothing they could do to stop people from trying to sneak into the bosses dungeon early. But to give everyone time to prepare for the battle ahead, Diavel called for the raid to occur that Sunday, two weeks after the game had started. It would give everyone time to level up and get their equipment squared. On that morning Kirito woke up, on the floor again, but this time he sat up as Argo snored away. 

He had never lived with a girl before, if this could even be considered living. Things in the VR world didn't need cleaning. Cooking was pretty much non-existent at the moment. They were surviving together. He looked over at Argo, her chest rising and falling as she breathed. Her eyes opened suddenly, and he didn't have time to look away. “Ah...uh...good morning?” He flashed a wide grin, this is why he always pretended he was still asleep!

Argo smiled at him, closing her eyes again as she yawned. “Mo....ahhhh....rnnning” she squeaked out as she awoke. Kirito started to busy himself, pulling up his command screen and checking out all of his gear. Today was a big day after all. Today, they were going to raid the floor boss. Considering how weak the guardian of the gate was, he had no idea what to expect from the main baddie. He didn't want to consider it, but this could be the last time he saw Argo. He had gotten used to her company...

Kirito shook his head, hoping to shake the thought away as well. “Are you ready for the big fight?” he asked, closing out of his command screen before looking around the room. They didn't have any personal effects, so there wasn't any mess to clean up. No suitcases, no dirty clothes. It had been two weeks, but there was still so much to get used to in this world. 

Argo got out from under the covers, her body covered by a plain white bra and panties. Kirito steamed and immediately turned around. This just caused the girl to laugh. “Still so modest? This isn't even a real body.” The girl mused as she sat on the edge of the bed. Kirito heard the sound of the command screen, along with the sound of clothes equipping. He turned his head to see that she had gotten dressed. “There, does that make you feel better?” she teased.

Kirito walked with Argo back to the amphitheater, eating their buttered breakfast bread. The first members of the raiding party had already shown up, eager to get some action. He had been in game lobbies and on raids with people waiting around before, but it was never like this. In most lobbies, there was always a bunch of people making jokes and spamming. Today, everyone was somber. This wasn't just some raid, they could really die out there. People were making last minute trades and upgrades, just hoping that it would be enough. 

The rest of the raiding party showed up slowly, piece by piece. When they were all there, Diavel stepped on the stage, quieting everyone down. “Can everyone hear me? Is everyone here? Good, then let's begin. From the manual that the beta testers handed out, we know that the name of the 1st Floor Boss is Illfang the Kobold Lord, and he is backed up by the Kobold Ruin Sentinels. That is, of course, assuming that any of this will be the same as beta.” 

Kirito grimaced. It was possible that they get inside and everything was different. Could they really risk that? What other choice did they have?

“We're going to attack in as safe a manner as possible. At least 2 people per Sentinel. Form groups of up to 6. Each group will be responsible for one Sentinel, and when they are taken out we will focus on Illfang. While the supporting monsters are being taken out, there will be two groups who will be responsible for keeping Illfang busy. They will not engage, only deflect his attacks and block. When one group needs to rest, the other will switch in. Please, do not volunteer for these groups if you do not have the stats and skills to tank.” 

“Illfang carries a bone axe and has 4 health bars. When the last health bar is reached he switches to a sword called a Talwar. His attack pattern also changes, so we will go on the defensive until we can analyze it. When it is safe, we will all attack as a group. XP and Col is divided evenly by the system, and whoever gets an item may keep it.” Diavel really had planned out everything, Kirito thought to himself. It was a bit of a relief to have someone with a cool head leading the way. “Alright, please break up into groups and make sure that you have all of your items. We will get going soon.” 

Kirito looked around. It was just him and Argo, and that wasn't enough. Klein already had a group of six. Across the amphitheater a group of guys had called the girl in the red hood over. She took a seat with them, never removing her head covering. “C'mon, I know a few people” Argo said, this time being the one to pull Kirito along. 

“Kirito, meet Kyosuke, Renzor, Azrael and ArkAngel.” Argo announced, the foursome of gruff looking young adults looking just as confused as Kirito. They must have been a group that she sold information to or something, he thought. They hadn't agreed to party up, but Argo had a way about her. Kirito watched as Renzor sharpened his sword, working on his blacksmith skill. “So, are you guys a guild?” he asked, trying to make small talk.

The short, white haired Kyosuke responded. “We will be, when we get enough Col together.” The rest nodded along. They didn't seem much for words, and Kirito wasn't the most social person himself, so Argo ended up being the bridge in conversation. 

“So, now that we're all acquainted, let's go take on some Kobolds!” She raised her hand happily, only to receive grumbles from her male compatriots. Defeated by their pessimism, she instead brought up the party screen, inviting Kyosuke and the rest to merge their party, for now at least. They agreed, and Kirito had 6 health bars in his field of vision instead of just two. It was a bit distracting. 

When the groups all formed, Kirito looked towards the stage. Agil and Kibaou had joined with Diavel and a few others to make up one of the main groups, the ones that would have to distract the boss while they took out the underlings. Every part of this plan was important. If they didn't take out the easier monsters, they would make it hard to take out the boss. And if the main group didn't keep the boss busy, it would wreck them while they worked on the easy guys. Balance.

The coalition army headed out, marching towards the mountains. Some people passed around food. Others sang. One woman had fashioned a flute out of a piece of wood and played a simple tune. The buffer effect wasn't major, Kirito noticed his pace was a little faster and things felt a little lighter, but mostly he was just glad to hear music again. 

It was afternoon by the time they arrived at the gate to the mountain, a winding path visible inside to the dungeon boss' room. Diavel stopped the troop from the front. “Alright everyone, this is it. This is your last chance to make sure your equipment is right and you have your items ready. Do not get caught unaware in there! If you have to, you can stay out here and we will get you when we are done.” 

A young boy towards the back cried out, pulling away from his group. “I'm sorry! I can't! I thought that I could but, we could die in there!” Kirito looked to see what was going on, realizing that the voice was coming from someone around his own age. In all of the other games, and before Kayaba's mirror trick, you were allowed to pick out how your character looked. Most chose to make themselves look taller, stronger, more badass. It was easy to go out into a fight when everyone looked like knights or operators. But now, with people looking as they were in the real world? The group did not look like an elite team that could take down a boss. 

Kirito shoved the thought from his head. He couldn't let something like that distract him now. A young woman from the boy's group broke off from them as well. “I'll stay out here with Tetsuo. It'll be alright, Keita” the girl reassured the group. They stepped off to the side of the entrance, the young woman rubbing her teammate's back gently. 

Two other people joined them, standing off to the side as they weren't ready to take on a floor boss. It was one of the reasons Kirito liked to be by himself. He didn't have to worry about someone not pulling their weight, or getting scared and running off. He only had to rely on himself. If he messed up, it was on him. He checked his equipment and inventory one more time. 

“Alright everyone, remember the plan and stick to it. If everyone is able to mob the enemies correctly, we shouldn't lose a single person. Now, let's go!” Diavel called out, pointing his arm towards the dungeon entrance. The group entered the mountain, staying to the winding path to the dungeon boss' door. 

The large apse of a room was unlit until Diavel stepped over the threshold. The circular room was dotted with large stone basins, and one by one they lit aflame. The fire brightened the area, slowly revealing Illfang the Kobold Lord's lair. When the basins at the halfway mark lit up, they revealed the large Kobold himself, surrounded by a group of smaller sentinels.

“This is it! Break off into your groups and pick out a sentinel! Groups A and B, distract Illfang!” Diavel commanded to the army. Swords, spears, bows, axes, maces, shields and more were drawn, and the group went charging. Across the lair, 10 Kobolds the size of the characters, each clad in full body armor with a large mace, rushed the players. 

Kirito, Argo and the rest of their party targeted a Kobold towards the left side. They rushed in to corral it off to the side before it could double up on anyone. Kyosuke had a katana, and attacked with blistering speed. Argo kept her shield up to block, her short dagger not a good match against the Kobold's long mace. Kirito's attacks landed hard, but the sentinels were stronger than the mini-boss that guarded the plinth. 

The group made good headway against the sentinel's HP, and Kirito turned to check out how the rest of the coalition was faring. The main groups were having trouble keeping Illfang corralled, as the large boss forced them to constantly switch back between groups A and B. 

Klein and the Fuurinkazan were holding their own pretty well, the group working in rhythm to fight their Kobold. Kirito could see that all of that groups' health bars were green, and he was thankful that Klein was doing alright. 

“KIRITO” came Argo's voice, snapping him back to reality in time to block a hit from the sentinel he was supposed to be fighting. He pushed it back off of him, nodding towards Argo in thanks for snapping him out of it. With the sentinel's body exposed from his parry he went on the offensive, peppering the Kobold's armor with strikes. The sentinel pixelated, it's health depleted as the group had defeated its enemy. 

It was just in time as well, as Illfang broke free of his distractors. The large boss smacked one of the people from Group A, a bulky, brown haired man in basic gear, against the wall. The player hit the stone and fell to the floor below, his HP bar going from yellow, to red, to empty. He was still alive and moving as he pixelated, his body shattering and disappearing in front of everyone. 

Kirito hadn't actually seen anyone die yet. He had heard about it, but to see it...right in front of him. He was frozen in place, the muscles in his jaw twitching. Illfang was about to swing his large axe at one of the other people in the main group. He couldn't let it happen, he couldn't let someone else die. But he was too far across the dungeon to do anything!

CLANG!

Illfang's axe stopped short and was repelled back, the girl in the red hood appearing in a flash to guard the other character. Her hood had flown back from the speed at which she moved, revealing all white garb beneath. Her hair was a pretty chestnut, and it flowed behind her as if it moved in slow motion. She had a thin rapier of a sword, but it somehow parried the large boss' attack. 

Kirito rushed forward, eager to aid the main group now that his group's sentinel was gone. Illfang's first HP bar had been depleted, but there were still three to go. Kirito ran up alongside the girl and she looked over at him. He was clad in all black, to her all white, and had a large sword in his right hand. She tossed her thin blade over to her left, nodding her head. 

The two charged the large Kobold, moving with a ferocious speed to rush in and strike the dungeon boss before jumping out of his attack distance. When the Kobold went to defend the girl on his right, Kirito moved in from the left. When it switched to attack Kirito, she picked up the slack.

It wasn't long before the Kobold's third HP bar began to dwindle. Behind them, the majority of the sentinels had been defeated, and the groups had ganged up on the remaining ones. Illfang was the major target now. When his 3rd health bar dropped out, the large boss let out a loud roar that reverberated off of the stone room. 

“Alright everyone, this is it, stand back!” Diavel yelled, rushing in in front of the group. Kirito was surprised, the plan was for the entire group to take on Illfang, to minimize risk. Why was Diavel running out ahead of everyone? He must know about the special boss drops! Kirito grit his teeth, angry for a moment that Diavel tried to pull a fast one on the entire group, but his attention was soon brought back to the large boss.

Illfang tossed his bone axe and shield to the side, reaching over his shoulder to unsheath his other sword. This wasn't a Talwar. It was a No-Dachi, things were different than the beta! “STOP, JUMP BACK!” Kirito yelled at Diavel, but it was already too late. 

The blue haired character attempted to attack the boss on his own, only to have his weapon slashed from his hand. The sword pixelated and disappeared before it ever hit the floor, leaving Diavel defenseless and at the Kobold's mercy. Kirito raised his hand, reaching out across the dungeon, but there was nothing he could do. 

The Kobold slashed his large sword at Diavel, a bright red line appearing across his chest. Diavel went flying, his health dropping as he soared through the air. He landed in front of Kirito, who instantly dropped to his knees to help. “Why, why did you go alone?” He hurried to pull out a potion from his inventory, his hands shaking too much to work the system commands.

Diavel only managed out a smile as the rest of his HP drained away. He turned to Kirito as it dropped to zero. “You've gotta beat the g....” he said quietly, his body pixelating and turning to shimmering shards around the kneeling boy. Kirito couldn't handle it. He gripped at the air where Diavel used to be, his fingers finding nothing. There weren't even bodies to bury in this game. When you were dead, you just disappeared as if you never existed. “AHHHH WHYY??!!!!” he screamed out in pain.

Kirito's words echoed through the room, cut by the clashing of swords as a few groups still battled sentinels. He got to his feet, his sword dragging behind him. There was so much he wanted to yell at the Kobold, but no words came out, just pain. Kirito's sword turned a bright blue as he rushed across the room, ducking Illfang's attack and landing a strike against the boss. He fought with a fire that he had yet to unleash in this game, weaving and jumping to avoid every one of the Kobold's attacks.

Just as his luck was about to run out, the No-Dachi raised above Illfang's head about to crash down on Kirito, a hit came out of nowhere, throwing the Kobold off of his attack. The hooded woman had rushed in to help him, and was followed by Agil and Klein. The foursome slashed and swung, chipping away at Illfang's health until there was one final roar. The large monster pixelated, filling the entire room with a dazzling light show as he disappeared. 

“CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE BEATEN FLOOR 1. YOU MAY ADVANCE TO FLOOR 2!” 

The notification appeared in the middle of the room. There was the sound of a fanfare as winning screens popped up in front of everyone. Each group was allotted XP and Col depending on how many monsters they fought. Everyone that hit their sentinel received an equal reward, and those that hit Illfang received a large XP boost as well. 

Kirito's XP shot through the roof, finally moving him from level 10 to ll. He added a healthy amount of Col, and then received a second notification. He had landed the finishing blow on the dungeon boss, and he received the item reward.

“You have received (1) new item. Cloak of Midnight.” Kirito clicked on it, and a long black jacket appeared over his avatar. He flipped up the collar, checking out the stats. The cloak darkened the area around him, making it harder for other players (outside of his party) and monsters alike to see him. It was a bad consolation prize after losing some people to the raid. That shouldn't have happened, if only Diavel just...

The celebration, and Kirito's mourning, was interrupted by the spiky haired Kibaou again. “YOU CHEATERS! DIAVEL DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE LIKE THAT! YOU KNEW!” Kibaou was pointing directly at Kirito now, tears in his eyes. “You saw that it was different from the beta and you let Diavel die, so you could have that item all to yourself!”

Agil was near Kirito and moved to quiet Kibaou again, but this time Kirito spoke up. “Will you shut THE FUCK UP!?” Kirito wasn't one to curse in the real world, his grandfather had been very strict about the language he used at home. Even in the virtual world, he kept his language PG-13. But now, as Kibaou attacked him again he just couldn't hold it in.

“I'm Six-Fucking-Teen. I just wanted to play a game! I didn't have anything to do with us getting trapped in here!” There were tears in Kirito's eyes, and Kibaou could tell he had messed up pretty quickly. “So what, I was in the beta test? The beta wasn't like this at all! And I'm still here, trying to get everyone through it. I just want to go home, just like you. So will you get off my FUCKING BACK?!” 

Everyone was silent. Argo the Rat moved through the crowd to help Kirito stand and turn from the stunned crowd. She used a potion on the black clad swordsman, bringing his health out of the red and back to green. This entire time the young boy had been teetering on death's doorstep. Without another word, they left the coalition party standing in the empty dungeon, walking through the portal to Floor 2.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so again, deviating from the canon, I'm going to have a little bit of a Kirito/Argo arc. They're not right for each other, and you'll be able to see the little winks to Asuna's coming relationship, but it would be boring to A, follow canon so closely and B, have them have a completely drama free relationship from start to finish. So, sorry if I'm stepping on any Kirito/Asuna shipper's toes, but we're going to have Kirito do a little Goldilocksing before finding the one who is just right. 
> 
> I'm also very open to taking suggestions, there is a lot of content to fill so if there is something you want to see in this story, let me know and I'll see how I can weave it in. Someone wanted Kirito to curse, so, after being prodded enough he's going to curse!. Also, I'm a cishet straight man myself, but I know representation matters so I want there to be F/F and M/M relationships as well. If I mess something up, like a dynamic or lingo, please let me know so I can make the characters better! Also, I know this can turn people off to a story when you take canon characters and switch around their sexuality, so I'll be sticking to the canon sexualities, although I may make a few of them bi. As an American writing for Japanese characters, I'll do my best to keep it authentic and not americanize things too much, but at the same time the only authentic voice I can write with is American, so I'm going to be very careful to not step over any lines. I'll try to add some diverse cast members, and I promise I won't pull a JK Rowling and name them Cho Chang or anything. I'm going to be careful to look things up, but if I switch someone's name around incorrectly let me know and I'll edit it!) 
> 
> Anyway, as of this publication, I'm still working on the stat sheet and I'll figure out how to make that available online. I've also started to come up with skill trees, item lists, the properties of each thing (like, gladius of power, +5% strength.) more guild rules, etc. The end of Floor 1 ends the canon content I have up to floor 20something, although I have looked up the manga stuff so I'm good with some ideas up to floor 5. Then, I'm off of my crutch and its time to fly. But for now, I'm going to do my best to build the world because that is what it seems like people want. I don't want to bumrush everyone with all of the different information, so I'm going to do it piece by piece, and introduce characters in the same way. Currently, there are still people in the town of new beginnings who haven't left yet. They can end up being some of the stronger characters, but its taking them some time to build up courage. Because this was a huge plot hole in SAO!
> 
> HEATHCLIFF. When he's introduced, he's the strongest character in the game, and no one has ever seen his HP drop into yellow. Aside from the fact that "WHO THE FUCK LOOKS LIKE THAT IRL?" it should have been kind of obvious that he came out of nowhere. Heathcliff wasn't in the first raiding party, and you don't see him until late in the series. A, I've got a gimmick for introducing Heathcliff that will explain that all, and B, he won't be introduced any time soon. It'll be interesting, and I hope you'll like the idea I have. That's a little off topic, but the point is that while Kirito did rush out to a good lead, there will be characters that don't leave until later that get pretty strong as well. 
> 
> Finally, I still need to edit this, but I've read through most of it at least twice and I'm just eager to post. So there will be a few edits as I read it over again and again, but the content should stay the same.


	3. Floor 2: Urbus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Floor 2 - Urbus.  
> Kirito wakes up to find that time had passed since he reached Floor 2. After checking out the new town, Kirito and Argo stay partied and do some leveling near town to bring her up to speed. Kirito teaches Argo how to use sword skills. When a new town is discovered, but guarded by a strong enemy, Argo knows that Kirito wants to go. That night, that have a special time together before heading out on a dangerous journey the next day. 
> 
> After trekking from Urbus to the Corintha, the travelers are attacked by a winged creatured. Kirito jumps in to help, and a familiar face from the SAO world is introduced. 
> 
> Some time passes and everyone is still stuck on Floor 2, so another meeting is called, this time by the girl in the hood. Pieces of the puzzle are put together and a party is produced to probe the...crap I ran out of Ps. Asuna, Argo, Kirito and some new characters head to check out a lake, and finds a secret dungeon. If you want to know what they find inside, you're going to have to read the rest!

Chapter 3 – Floor 2 – Urbus – November 21, 2022 - Midday

The sun was already blazing when Kirito opened his eyes, the feeling of soft sheets covering his body. He yawned lightly and froze. Soft sheets? Was he at home? He sat up, looking around the room. Sitting at a small, round table nearby, Argo beamed back at him.

“Well good morning sleepy head, or should I say good afternoon?” Kirito looked at his command screen. 3:24 PM. Had he really been sleeping that long? He sat up, his black clothes still equipped. He remembered the boss fight, Diavel dying and the girl in the red hood's badassery. Then, they had gone through the portal...and that's it. 

“What happened? What day is it?” He asked, rubbing his head while secretly trying to fix his hair up. But Argo noticed and giggled.

The girl stood up while talking “Well, after the boss fight we went through the portal, and you started to get weak. I barely got you into the bed when you passed out.” She walked over to the window and looked out. “I'd say its been about a week....” 

“A WEEK?!” Kirito jumped up from the bed.

Argo turned around, a mischievous smirk on her face. “Gotcha again! It's only been a day, relax.” Steam rose from Kirito's ears, even as he was relieved by the news. This girl was going to give him a heart attack. “A few people came up here last night, but this morning a lot more came up. They haven't gone far though, so don't worry, you haven't fallen behind.” 

Kirito nodded, he was glad that he had an info broker at his side. There were only 2 HP bars on his screen now, so they must have broken their group with the others. Kirito didn't know where to start first. He was eager to get out and see what enemies were on this floor. He wanted to find the dungeon boss. He wanted to....EAT. He could feel his stomach rumbling. “Damn you Kayaba” Kirito said aloud.

“Huh, what was that?” Argo asked, her face twisting up. 

Kirito waved a hand in front of himself “It was nothing. Hey, Argo? Thanks for helping me out back there. I didn't realize how much nearly dying took it out of ya.” He managed out a smile before getting to his feet. The duo left the Inn room and walked out into the starting city of Floor 2, Urbus (The name appears as they walk out)

Kirito looked around. The town was bigger than Tolbana, but smaller than the Town of New Beginnings. There were a bunch of NPC characters toiling around town, and Kirito realized he was probably going to have to start paying attention to them. Kayaba had hidden the quest that brought them to the dungeon boss in some kids playing ball, who knows where else he hid quests?

The smell of fresh bread brought Kirito's attention to the local bakery, his stomach leading the way. Argo followed as he stepped inside. There was only a few people in line, and Kirito took his place. When he stepped up to the counter, his jaw hit the floor as he saw the options.  
Bread: 100 Col  
Bread with Butter: 200 Col  
Egg: 500 Col

It had been over 2 weeks, and until the addition of his butter reward, all he had eaten had been bread. He bought 4 eggs and 2 loaves of bread with butter, dropping a heavy bag of Col on the counter for the feast. The bag disappeared as soon as it hit the counter, the register making a “Ch-Ching!” noise without ever opening. 

Argo looked at Kirito nervously. “Come on, this isn't all phhhrrr mehhhhh” he said as he stuffed a loaf of bread into his mouth. The girl smacked her hand to her forehead and followed Kirito out of the shop. There were no benches or soft places to sit, like in the Town of New Beginnings, so they sat against the wall of the bakery on the stone path.. 

Kirito divided up the eggs and immediately popped one in his mouth whole. He began to chew and his face melted happily, he had missed food and he didn't even realize it. Argo raised her hand to her mouth as she watched him eating his egg blissfully. She lifted one of hers to her mouth and ate much more gracefully...at first. After tasting how good it was, she scarfed the rest of the first egg and then her second. 

Kirito laughed, putting the sleeve of his Coat of Midnight in front of his mouth to keep from laughing with his mouth full. That wasn't so much of a problem in Aincrad, as the food turned to pixels like every other item, but old habits from the real world were hard to shake. Kirito had had more than one moment of dread where he realized he hadn't been to the bathroom in a long time, only for it to subside a moment later. 

He was really starting to enjoy Argo's company, and not just because she was pretty now. During the beta she had seemed so cutthroat, but now she was a lot more human. “Hey Argo? What's...What's your real name?” Kirito asked. It was an extreme faux pas to ask people their real names in games, but Kirito figured that SAO was different. Who knows how long they would go without ever hearing their real names? 

Argo wrapped her arms around her legs, pulling them to her body as they sat against the wall. She looked up, almost as if she had to think about it. Tomo. Hosaka Carina Tomo. You?”

“Kirigaya Kazuto” Argo put her hand out and Kirito laughed, lifting his to shake hers. They had known each other for so long now, and they were just learning each other's real names. And if it wasn't for being trapped in here, he might not have told her. 

The duo finished up their late breakfast and got up, heading for the sword shop. The shop only had D-Class weapons, but it was a step up from Floor 1. After upgrading his sword, Kirito swung his new blade around outside. “Alright, so explain it to me again? I wanna make sure I get it right for the guide” Argo asked him.

“So we only know up to C-class, even from the beta, but there's some assumptions we can make from the way other games are” Kirito responded as he swiped the sword around. It was heavier and felt sturdier than his previous. “We know there is an E-class, D-class, and C-Class, so there's probably a B, and A, and maybe even an S-class.” 

Argo typed away at a command screen, saving all of the information as Kirito talked. “So to start, there's the E-class weapons. That is just a basic weapon, without any add-on powers. For instance, a sword. A low level E-Class sword would just be a plain “Iron Sword”. But then there are the add-ons, like “Iron Sword of Power”. That adds a strength buffer, and makes it a D-class weapon.”

“Hey wait! Slow down, I have to type this all up.” Argo waved her arms around to get Kirito to allow her to catch up.

Kirito activated a sword skill, feeling the weight of his new weapon as he slashed at the air. Another player walking by jumped back, even though they were completely out of harm's way. “Eh, sorry!” Kirito waved at them, but the other player walked off angry. Seeing that Argo had stopped typing and was waiting on him, he started up again. “A C-class weapon, like my 'Powerful Bronze Sword of the Knight' has two add-ons, it starts to get to be a bit of a mouthful, but it goes on from there. We still don't know what A or S class are like though.”

“Probably pretty powerful though!” she chimed in, sounding hopeful. Kirito nodded. He would love to get his hands on an S-class weapon right now. “In a technical sense, you could have a pretty good D-Class weapon if the add-on were strong enough, but yea, an S-class is the way to go. The material matters as well. So far we've seen Iron and Bronze weapons, so if SAO is like other games there will probably be Copper and Silver and Gold. The material might be tied to the class as well, but we'll have to see. There's still so much we don't know.” 

There was so much that this game could encompass, and they didn't even know. They couldn't see what wasn't unlocked yet. Weapons, Skill Trees, everything was a mystery. There was a neat little option to reset, but it wasn't accessible and no one was able to figure out why. Kirito looked over at Argo typing up everything he had said “Are you really going to give this info away?”

“Well, yea. People should know the basic stuff so that they can survive. THAT would be mean of me to sell...” She trailed off. Kirito could tell she was hiding something.

“What do you mean the basic stuff? Are you selling other things?” He asked, pointing his sword at her.

Her face turned pink, caught, “Well, maybe just some of the things I've watched you do, to some of the higher level people. I mean, a girl's gotta eat!” Kirito sheathed his sword, shrugging. She was right, and now that they were in a fight for their lives he didn't mind her selling some of his secrets. Just so long as he kept some things to himself. He helped her off of the ground. The sun had already started to get lower in the sky, but he wanted to get some leveling done. 

Stepping out of Urbus, Kirito looked out at a vast savanna Long grass swayed in the gentle breeze, and flat topped mountains lined the distance. Kirito looked around and the only monsters he could see were large bison type creatures, grazing on the range. He felt bad, interrupting creatures that weren't attacking him and disturbing their digital dining, but he existed in the real world and they didn't. He needed to do this to get back there. Kirito charged at one of the bison...

WHAM

He went flying off to the side as the large creature flung him with his horns. Kirito rolled on the ground, watching his HP drop a small amount. The creatures on the first floor had been so easy, he had gotten a bit lax. He hopped up and laughed “That's more like it!” he yelled out.

Argo shook her head as she watched Kirito from a distance. He got back to his feet and waited for the bison to charge, activating his sword skill before unleashing it along the large creatures tough skin. A red line appeared where he struck, but the bison charged past. These enemies weren't any one-hit wonders like the ones on the floor below. The enemy charged towards Argo, and the girl's eyes went wide. She hadn't expected to get engaged at that range, and just managed to dive away as it charged past. “Gotta keep on your guard, Argo!” Kirito called out, rushing past her so the Bison would stay locked on him. 

Kirito engaged his sword skill again as he ran the Bison down, this time landing two hits before the enemy pixelated and disappeared. A congratulations screen popped up in front of both of them. “Hey, why'd I get XP for that?” Argo asked, tapping away at her screen as she looked over at Kirito “All I did was dive away.”

“We're a party now, parties share XP when they win a fight.” He walked over and pat her on top of her head “Looks like there's some information that I know and you don't.” Kirito smiled so wide that his eyes closed for a moment, but then he felt an intense glare on him. He stop patting and continued explaining. “Enemies are a little harder depending on how many people are in a party, but they also give off a higher XP reward. People in the party share XP because its assumed they're sharing work as well. It's probably possible to help someone speed level, if a bunch of higher level characters partied with a lower level one to bring them up to speed.” Kirito raised his finger to his mouth, thinking of strategies.

“How come a guy who doesn't clan or party knows so much about partying?” Argo asked, sounding impressed by how much Kirito knew.

“Just because I don't clan, doesn't mean I don't listen. People walking around town talk a lot, so as a solo player it helps to listen in and pick up as much information as I can.” Kirito looked at his screen, checking out Argo's level. She was only at level 6, even after the last boss fight. During the beta they hadn't partied, she only followed after him so he didn't know what level she got up to, but if it was higher than 2 he would be surprised. Something like that worked during a regular game, where the important part about her character was the information she had. But in this death game, she was going to need to do better.

“We're going to have to level you up a bit, and get you some better gear” he nearly laughed as he looked at her basic gear. She had worked a little bit more on her character than in the beta, but only by a small bit. The enemies were only going to get harder from here on in, and the best way to protect yourself in this game was to be a high level. 

“I'm not used to actually fighting, I usually just watch people play and then I type up my own strategy guide. I can do 140 WPM in the real world but on this...ARGH!” she pulled up the command screen and flipped it off. The digital keys were just not the same as a real keyboard. She closed it out and looked at Kirito “I know, laugh it up, the information broker that doesn't know how to use her own information.” 

Kirito shook his head, if the situation wasn't dire it might have been funny. There were plenty of newbs in the game, and all of them could die if they weren't careful. In a regular game, that would just be life. But here...Kirito couldn't let that happen. No one knew how many people had already perished, but it was already too many. He stepped over to Argo, “I'll help you out, of course. Alright, now get into it a fighting stance.” 

Argo stood up straight, holding the shield in front of her chest and her dagger down at her side. There was a lot of work to do, Kirito thought. He lifted his hands to move her body into a better position, but as his fingers got close to her he stopped. Instead, he moved his own body into the stance he wanted her to take, pretending like that's what he was doing with his hand all along. “Alright, stand like this” he said, holding his shield-less left arm out a bit, with his sword at an angle that wouldn't work for a long blade. 

Argo smiled as Kirito shied away, then moved to mimic him. She squat down a little, bringing her right foot back and holding her shield out a little farther with her left arm. She held her dagger down by her side, already feeling a little more powerful in this stance. “Like this?” she asked as she looked to her new tutor. 

“Much better. Now, you're going to get XP just by being in a party, but you can earn skills and bonuses by joining in. To start, the monsters on this floor are a bit harder than the ones below, so mostly, just block.” Kirito coached. He didn't want to be mean, but until her level went up and her gear was upgraded, she was in danger. “If you get a clear shot, try a quick jab. First, you're going to want to activate a skill.” 

Argo looked a bit lost. “How do you activate a skill?” 

Kirito shifted the blade in his hand to a better position before gripping it tightly “You just...kind of do? Hold your weapon and let your energy flow into it.” His sword shone blue and he slashed at the air to dissipate it, just as he had shown Klein. 

Argo held the blade in her hand and squished up her face, but nothing happened. “Why isn't it working?” she looked to Kirito for answers.

He stepped forward, his hand reaching out for hers. This time he made contact and placed his hand over hers on the dagger handle. “First, its not about how tight you grip it. Loosen your fingers a little, and shift them like this” He brought her hand back, standing close behind her as he coached. “Now, think about your dagger and the attack you want to do. It's a simple stab through the air.” 

Argo's dagger shone blue and the girl opened her eyes “I can feel it!” she exclaimed happily. 

“Alright, now let her rip then!” Kirito said, letting go. Argo stabbed at the air three times in quick succession, using her sword skill for the first time. She looked surprised at her arm “I didn't even mean to do three strikes, what was that?” 

“Well, a dagger is a pretty weak weapon, so they probably evened it out by having it land multiple hits. That looked to be three hits, but the more you use it, the higher the hit counter will probably go.” Kayaba really wanted this world to be as fair as possible, so even the crappiest weapons were going to have some use. There weren't going to be any stupid lag deaths or problems like that, Kayaba knew the stakes. That's why it had taken him so long to build this place. If it had really taken him over a decade to build, how long was it going to take them to clear it? 

Argo waved the dagger around in the air, still looking confused. Kirito was about to suggest they go look for another enemy to fight together, when the sound of someone yelling for help commanded their attention. “Let's go!” Kirito yelled, already moving towards the sound. 

He rushed across the landscape, over a length of plains and then onto a rocky outcrop. There was a solo player being rushed by a Bison. Kirito saw that the character's health was already in the yellow and he knew how much of a wallop the Bison packed. “Come on, we have to save them. You get between them and the Bison and use your shield!” he yelled. He rushed towards the charging beast, hoping to get close enough that it would change targets. He activated his sword skill, starting to slash at the Bison before getting knocked away. Looking up from the ground, he watched as Argo ran between the Bison and the cowering player, her shield raised high. It took the brunt of the hit, but still knocked both Argo and the other person to the ground. 

Kirito was back on his feet, ready to move when he heard a loud “Heee-yahhhhhhh” resound over the open land. Almost out of nowhere, another player swinging a long ax rushed in and attacked the bison. Klein appeared on the ridge, directing the rest of the Fuurinkazan towards the raging beast. With the bison surrounded, it only took the group a few moments for the enemy to be defeated. Kirito received a congratulations screen for having hit the enemy, but one of Klein's guild members got the winning bonus. 

“Hey Kiri-dude, sorry to barge in on ya like that but I heard someone yelling!” Klein flashed a happy smile and then looked at Kirito nervously. In some games, stealing a kill was a big no-no. But in SAO, Kirito was just glad that everyone was safe. 

“No sweat Klein, it looks like your guild is filling up!” He looked over at the group as they high fived and celebrated their win. Counting Klein, there was now 7 of them. 

“Yea, the more the merrier you know? It's always good to have someone watching your back.” Klein said with a nudge, obviously attempting to soften Kirito to the idea. As they talked, Argo walked up and Klein was taken aback. “Well, it looks like you have someone watching your back! Hi there, my name is Klein, when did this...” he pointed back and forth between Kirito and Argo“...start?” 

Argo's ears turned red and she covered her hand with her mouth. Kirito had a much more animated response, his cheeks turning red as his hands waved around. “Hey! What's the big idea, saying things like that?!” he began to steam, quickly cooling off to not blow up in front of his party member. “We just partied up to find the Floor 1 dungeon boss.” 

Argo joined in on the teasing, clasping her hands behind her back before leaning in towards Kirito “But, we're on flo-oo-rr two-oo no-ww” she sang out. 

Kirito fizzled, getting it from both angles. Luckily, Klein wasn't one to rub it in. Besides, there was another character that they had forgotten about for the moment. The player who was being chased by the bison finally got to their feet, the teen boy walking over to Kirito, Argo and Klein.

“T-t-thank you so much. I didn't know the enemies would be so hard up here” he managed out, looking shaken. “I'm Ducker.”

“Don't sweat it, but from now on you may want to stick to the lower floors, and only go out in groups. We'll all walk you back to town” Klein responded, thumping his chest and offering the help of the entire group. Kirito tried not to look visibly annoyed, but it wasn't a far walk. The group set off, with Ducker standing close to Kirito and the rest keeping a near 360 view, they made their way back to Urbus. Ducker ran off to the portal and headed back to Floor 1. 

“Well, looks like you guys have your own thing to go do, but before we go let me introduce you to the guys!” Klein exclaimed, wrapping his arm around Kirito's head and pulling him towards the Fuurinkazan. “Everyone, this is Kirito. Kirito this is Tyrus, Charra, Yamata, Levi, Wrecka and Zzz” Kirito tried to catch everyone's name as the group gave him a series of nods and waves. Tyrus, Charra and Wrecka were Kleins age and had a similar scruffy nature about them. They must have been Klein's old guild. Levi looked quite young, and Yamata much older. Kirito couldn't tell how old Zzz was, due to the mask covering the lower half of his face. “Well, I won't keep you any longer. Make me proud!” Klein laughed, joining his guild and heading off into the savanna again. 

“He was kind of weird, how do you know him?” Argo asked, finally rejoining the conversation. 

“I don't really, I met him on the day it all started. I was teaching him how to use sword skills when we found out that we couldn't log out.” He didn't even want to stop to teach Klein how to use them. What if he hadn't and Klein had died? What if he had rushed out so far and died himself? He was certainly glad he had stopped. He shook his head, he couldn't think like that. “Anyway, why don't we go upgrade your gear? That shield took quite a hit.”

A quick trip to the weapons shop and Argo had a brand new, larger, shield and an upgraded dagger with a bonus to agility. She stabbed at the air with the dagger, faster than before, but the shield felt a lot heavier than the other one. “It's more like an anchor!” she moaned.

“When you get a couple levels higher it should get lighter. Your strength, like, the way things feel when you lift them, is directly linked to your strength attribute. So, the higher it is, the easier it is to lift heavier things, even non-weapons. There aren't any strength requirements for anything, so if you can lift it, you can use it. But some things will be as useful as a boulder if you don't have high enough strength to use it.” Kirito explained. “Although if your strength is really high, I guess a boulder would be kind of useful.”

Argo shoved Kirito playfully. “Really, a boulder? Just going to throw a boulder at an enemy?” She shook her head and pointed her dagger towards the path out of town “Let's go find some quests!” The sun had started to go down when they headed out of town again. 

November 26, 2022 – Late Afternoon

Five days later, they still had not found any quests. Each floor was quite large, and from the look of the game case, Aincrad had an oblong shape. Each floor was a little larger than the one before it up until a certain point. Then, each level got smaller until the Castle on the top. Kirito didn't want to move too far from Urbus while Argo was at a low level, so they stuck close to town and worked on her levels. After a few days, he could already see the difference in how she held her weapons and herself. 

CLANG! Swip swip swip swip! 

The bison that Kirito had sent Argo's way stopped against her shield and was met with a ferocious volley of quick dagger attacks. Kirito had worn down a good chunk of the enemy's HP, but Argo was already showing more confidence. The bison pixelated and disappeared, a congratulations screen popping up in front of both of them. Argo put away her weapons and bounced happily. “Yay! Level 10 for me now!” 

Kirito looked at his own level, he had only progressed to 14 in the past few days. He had mostly been focused on helping Argo level and learn some fighting skills, but he had a nagging feeling he was falling behind the other top players. Urbus had become the center of activity on Floor 2, and groups of players went out in various directions to search for other settlements or quests. They would walk so far, then turn around and head back to town, then walk a bit farther the next day. This wasn't the way an MMORPG was usually played, not even in the games with “Hardcore” settings. 

“Good job Argo, wanna head back to town then? The Sun's getting kind of low.” Kirito said. They still called it the sun, even though it wasn't the real thing. The clock read 5:34, but Kirito had begun to wonder if that was really the time it was in the real world. He figured that they must actually be trapped in the game, or the government would have found a way to pull everyone out by now. But just how much of the game could they trust? What if time was sped up, and in reality they had only been there for a few hours? He shook his head. For now, he had no way of knowing, so he just needed to play his way through. The pair headed back to town, the sky over the savanna looking like a wildfire as the sun began to set behind them.

Kirito and Argo stepped out of the bakery, already a bit bored of their newfound egg delicacy when a group of people stumbled into town. “There's another town! Due North! But the monsters are so hard!” Most of the players were in the yellow, but one was in the red. Someone from the crowd gave the red player a light healing crystal, bringing them back up to yellow. They had obviously just made it back. 

Kirito looked to Argo, he needed to stay at the front of the game and keep moving, but would she be able to keep up? “Let's go head back to the Inn, we need to figure out what to do.” Kirito suggested and Argo nodded. They left the crowd as the battered party told everyone about a flying monster. Heading back to the Inn, Kirito was silent. They walked into their room and he sat down at the round table. A candle on the table lit up automatically as they entered the room, casting a yellow glow. He folded his fingers together and leaned in, supporting his head in thought with his makeshift bridge. 

Argo walked over to the bed and sat down, her hands at her side. Kirito just barely noticed her outline as he ran through his options. “You know, I can tell you wanna go to the new town. It's alright” she reassured him. He looked up, not sure what to say. He didn't know what level that group had been, but they looked pretty battered. He knew that he would be fine, but Argo... “I'll be alright, I've learned a lot these past few days. And I'll be with you, Kirito.” 

He looked at her, a little bit taken aback. Her voice was softer than he was used to from her, the girl who usually teased or nudged him. “Are you sure? This isn't just a game anymore. I don't know what I would do if something happened to you.” He responded honestly. 

“I know, that's why I trust you. Hey, Kirito? Do you...want to sleep in the bed tonight?” She asked, looking bashful. Her legs kicked around off the edge of the bed and she looked around the room nonchalantly. But Kirito couldn't hide it as well as Argo could and his face looked shocked. 

“IN THE SAME BED?! I mean...ahem....in the same bed?” both his face and ears had turned red, an unfortunate effect of being unable to hide it from the system. Argo smiled at him and lifted her legs onto the bed, twisting to get under the blanket. She opened the command screen and unequipped her armor and overclothes. The sound of clothes unequipping filled the quiet room, and Kirito tried to contain his nerves. He had never slept next to a girl before, even though there wasn't anything that could happen. 

“Put out the candle and get in the bed, unless you prefer the floor!” she teased. Kirito reached forward and the command screen for the candle appeared, he flipped it to the off position and the room went dark. His eyes were still getting used to the dark, and he stumbled over to the bed, finally finding the posts. He walked around to the far side and nervously got onto the edge of the bed. He followed Argo's lead and got under the covers before de-quipping. He was content just to lay in the space next to her, but it wasn't long until he felt Argo's hand reaching over his body for his hand. She pulled his arm over her body, wrapping herself up. 

They were silent for a moment, as Kirito burned the memory of this new sensation into his brain. Argo was the first to speak up. “We could die any day now. And I know that could happen back in real life too, but in here...well it's just different. And I don't want to forget all of the things I miss in the real world, even if its just a hug.” They were about the same height, so Argo wedged her body against his. 

“I won't let that happen, and I don't think you'll give up easily either. We're going to finish this” Kirito said quietly, almost as much for her as it was for himself. Argo cuddled herself deeper into Kirito's arms and fell asleep soon after, but he stayed awake, feeling the rise and fall of her breath. He wasn't going to let anything bad happen to her.

November 27, 2022 – Early Morning

Kirito's nose crinkled, something was tickling him. Before he could move Argo's soft hair away from his sensitive nostrils, he leaned his head back and sneezed. Argo's aggressive cuddling had pushed Kirito to the edge of the bed, and the force of his sneeze sent him over it. Kirito rolled to the floor loudly, landing against the wall before bumping his head. Argo hopped up with a star, not knowing what had happened. She rolled over to see Kirito on the floor in his boxers, rubbing the back of his head. “Well, that's quite a way to start the day!” she laughed.

Kirito slowly realized that his clothes were unequipped, and he quickly rectified that. He pulled up his equipment screen and put on his clothes, sighing in relief as his black outfit appeared. “I-It's not my fault! You pushed me all of the way to the edge of the bed you...you...bed hog!” He wasn't on his A-game this early in the day, especially not after such a surprise start. Argo wasn't as shy as him, and she rolled out of the bed in her underwear. Kirito turned and pretended to be busy checking his item screen as she equipped her clothes. 

The duo got an early start, filling up their inventory with some more eggs before heading out. There were a few other groups that had the same idea to leave before everyone else, but they all gave each other a wide berth. Argo yawned sleepily as she walked, drawing on her whiskers for the day with a plain pencil. The sun began to rise, bedazzling the sky and bathing the land in light. They didn't have much direction to go on, aside from “due north”, so they walked on in that general direction. Every now and then, they came to a group battling an enemy. Kirito wanted to join in, but he knew they needed to press on as well. 

With the land slowly picked clean ahead of them, they had an uneventful walk north. Kirito longed for some action, mostly to avoid having to talk about last night. But just as he thought it, Argo brought it up. “Was that your first time laying next to a girl?” She asked, a little bounce in her step as she walked. 

Kirito shrugged down a little. “Yea, maybe. Why, was it yours as well?”

Argo laughed. “No...” Kirito had been hopeful that they were on the same level and felt a little deflated before she could continue “...because I was laying next to a guy!” she snapped her fingers, her little victory move as she pulled a fast one on him. Kirito groaned and shoved her away playfully. It had been really nice to be that close to someone, and feel human. Kirito had something to ask her, but his thoughts were interrupted by shouts from ahead. 

There were people entering a rocky valley, pointing to the sky as a dark shape flew above. It was a Roc, the Guardian of the Valley. The mythic bird swooped around and flew low towards the group ahead of him, grabbing one of the characters before sending them flying. Kirito looked back at Argo, who nodded, she knew now that he didn't back down from any kind of fight. Not when lives were at stake. Kirito rushed towards the attacked group, his sword drawn “Everyone! Get around your friend in a circle, if it comes back in, surround it!” For a solo player, Kirito was still a decent strategist. 

The Roc came around for another pass and plunged down. This time, the large bird's claws were met with shields and swords. Kirito activated his sword skill and jumped, bringing his sword down heavily on one of the Roc's wings. The avian creature was hurt and jumped back, raising it's good wing to swipe at them. Most of the group went flying, including Kirito, but they weren't hurt badly. He hopped up, “Load up on its bad side, whoever is your strongest, come with me to keep its good wing busy!” 

Kirito led the charge on the large bird, slashing at the unhurt wing to force it to fight on two fronts. A tall woman with a halberd joined him, the heavy weapon thrusting at the healthy wing to keep it away. Argo had joined the rest of the group on the weak side, and they began to batter the hurt creature. This only led the Roc to lash out harder with its good wing, nearly knocking Kirito down as he just parried with his sword in time. This left an opening for his new attack partner. The tall woman brought her heavy halberd over her head, the tip glowing red. “Andd SPIKE” She brought the long weapon bashing down on the good wing, damaging it as well. 

One of the members of the other group began to celebrate “Yeah! Alright Rosalia!” But the Roc wasn't giving up that easily and pecked at the loudest one. Argo jumped in front of him, deflecting the large bird's beak with her shield. Kirito rushed in towards the torso, peppering the Roc with hits. The enemy reared its head back, turning to pixels before it could let out its final roar. A congratulations screen popped up in front of everyone's view, and Kirito checked out his added XP and Col. He also received an item, a helmet, but it wasn't identified. The item screen only displayed “???” and he couldn't equip it. A second command screen popped up, letting them know that the quest “Guardian of the Valley” was complete.

“HEY!” Yelled the tall woman with the halberd, dusting herself off. She brushed back her red hair. “We had that covered, we didn't need you jumping in like that! You just wanted that item for yourself! You should give it here.” Rosalia turned her nose up and stuck her hand out, actually expecting Kirito to give it to her. Instead, he shrugged. He was under no obligation to hand over something that the game had given him, and attacking another player in this game gave your character an orange emblem for a few days. No one wanted to associate with orange players, so people weren't willing to fight over small things. 

“Sorry Lady, but the system awarded it to me. And you guys looked like you could use the help.” Kirito waved his hand towards Argo and she moved over towards him. He ushered her away from the group as Rosalia and company leered at them. Kirito got a bad vibe off of her, but the walk into the next settlement wasn't long. The name “Corintha” appeared in Kirito's vision as they stepped onto the path into the small, stone town. 

Kirito checked the weapon shop first, but the weapons there weren't any better than Urbus. He groaned, realizing this may not have been the correct direction to take. There were several settlements on the first floor, and there were probably just as many, if not more, on the second. Some were just going to be villages that didn't offer much, others were going to be major stops. Kirito left the weapon shop, feeling a bit down, but Argo had fared better at the bakery. “This town was totally worth coming to, look at this!” She pulled out two packets and handed him one. Taking hers, she split it in half to reveal strings of cheese hanging between two slices of bread. “GRILLED CHEESE” 

Kirito's eyes went wide. Even if they didn't have any useful weapons here, a grilled cheese was hard to complain about. He quickly ripped open his packet, looking at the sandwich with wonder. Argo wasn't waiting for him and had already begun to chow down on hers. Kirito took a bite, relishing the flavor before it disappeared in his mouth. Kayaba was baiting them with food, giving them just a little bit, but making sure to keep them unsatisfied and wanting more. It was almost like...he wanted them to progress through the game. 

Kirito finished up his grilled cheese and they headed off for an Inn, eager to get some rest after a long day.

December 2nd, 2022 – Midday – Urbus:

Urbus didn't have an amphitheater to meet in, so the center of town had to do. After nearly another two weeks, no one had been able to find the dungeon boss. A call went out for another meeting, although this time there was no Diavel. Kirito wondered who had organized this, another “knight”? The group of seventy characters, a bit smaller than the first floor raiding party, gathered together on the grey stone expanse. Argo stood next to Kirito, looking around at the group. 

The girl in the red hood stepped up in front of the crowd, the hood no longer covering her long chestnut locks. Kirito stood up a little straighter, trying to get a good look through the crowd. The girl raised her hands to quiet everyone down. “Please, the sooner you quiet down the sooner we can get this over with. I am Asuna, I have asked you all here for the same reason as the last floor, because we need to work together if we want to get through this.”

There were less grumbles of disagreement this time, as the groups and guilds that wanted to do it on their own hadn't shown up. There were a few new faces, along with some old ones that Kirito recognized. Kyosuke and company now had a Guild symbol near their HP bars, having gotten together enough Col to start their group. Asuna spoke up again, “There might be a quest that one person has gotten, or an item. Have any of you found anything useful on this floor that you can't explain?” 

A woman on the other side of the crowd raised her hand “My name is Lysa, and we got a quest called “The Hidden Labyrinth” and there's a riddle attached? We don't know what it means but maybe someone else does.” She began to read the riddle from her command screen.

“For Icarus, did Daedalus fashion  
A winged suit, of some contraption  
High above did he soar  
Guardian of the floor  
If you are victorious, you may find  
The key to the labyrinth is thine.”

There was a murmuring from the crowd as everyone began to pore over the riddle. Kirito thought it over, but Argo nudged him “Hey Kirito, wasn't the flying creature we beat called “the Guardian of the Valley?” Maybe the item it dropped had something to do with this!” 

Kirito nodded and pulled up his command screen. They still hadn't found a way to identify the helmet that they had found, but there was a good chance it had something to do with this quest. He joined in on the conversation “We found a helmet, from a quest called the “Guardian of the Valley” that might have something to do with this but we can't identify the item though” He volunteered.

A player wearing glasses shot their hand up. “Oooh! I can help with that!” they pushed a few people out of the way to move over to Kirito. Kirito was confused, the NerveGear directly stimulated the brain, so people who wore glasses in the real world didn't need to wear them in the game, everyone could see just fine in the game. The player tapped at the lenses on their face “I've already started leveling up my identification skill.” 

Kirito shrugged. Kayaba had found a way to wrap skills into real world items. He typed away at the command screen and gave the item over to the other player. A screen popped up in front of the other boy, who accepted it. Kirito received a notification “Ginrou has accepted your item”. He watched as the item appeared in the other boy's hands, and he looked at it good and close. Ginrou's eyes bulged a little as he started to count down “5. 4. 3. 2. 1. AH! Got it” he started to blink quickly. The boy began to rub his eyes, spinning the command screen to send the item back to Kirito.

The crowd was watching with baited breath. Kirito opened the item back up. “Hermes' Winged Helmet” he announced to the crowd. Before he could say anything else, Lysa spoke up again.

“Just got a notification! The quest now has a location, its at a lake due west of here.” Lysa said, looking at her command screen. Asuna smiled at the crowd, all it had taken was getting everyone together and their problems had been solved quite simply. Even Kirito hated to admit how much he was going to have to rely on other characters in this game. 

“Alright, we don't know what to expect, so we will send out a search party to check out the lake. If everything looks alright, we will regroup and form a raiding party for Sunday. You, with the helmet, are you willing to go to the lake location?” Asuna asked, pointing directly at Kirito. He didn't really have a choice, he had the item that could move everyone on. He was pretty glad he didn't let Rosalia have it. Players like her could make this game really hard if they blocked a quest or an item. Kirito nodded. “And Lysa, you have the location. We'll all group up and head to check it out.” 

Argo nudged Kirito, he had been looking a bit hard at the girl who took control, and Kirito blushed, rubbing the back of his head. “I..was just looking at who we were partying with, that's all!” He put the helmet back into his inventory and started to check his equipment. His durabilities were all fairly high, and this was just a simple recon mission. The rest of the group cleared out, leaving Kirito, Argo, Asuna, Lysa and Lysa's group of 4. Together, they maxed out the single party at 8. Guilds could purchase options to break the party limit, but it was pretty expensive. 

Asuna spoke first. “Even though its just a recon mission, we should stop at the item shop for teleport and health crystals on the way out. We never know what is going to happen.” Kirito liked the way she thought, it was always better to err on the side of caution, and a teleport crystal could get them out of harms way in a second. Kirito had some health crystals, but a few more couldn't hurt.

When the group was laden with items for their journey, they left town and followed Lysa's lead. Lysa's group followed her closely, and Argo walked near Kirito. Asuna walked on her own. To break the silence, and always one to gather information, Argo piped up “So Lysa, do you guys have a group name?”

Lysa smiled “We don't really have enough members now, but when we do, we're going to be the Iron Curtain!” The girl swung her arm and brought her thumb to her chest, looking smug about the choice of name. They were well equipped with shields, so the name made a bunch of sense. They followed along the path, with Lysa checking her map every so often to make sure they were still on track. There were a few bison, but they took the long way around them. They didn't want to waste any of their good items, in case anything happened later. 

When they arrived at the lake, a heavy mist covered the water. A rocky shore line gave way to dark waters, and Kirito didn't want to find out how deep they were. “Oh yea, this is definitely giving me dungeon boss vibes” Kirito commented as he looked around. This was the place that Lysa's map was bringing them. He opened up his item screen and pulled out Hermes' Winged Helmet. “Well, here goes” he said with a shrug and equipped it. 

For a second, nothing happened. And then, as if by magic, Kirito was yanked off the ground. He looked back at the group as he disappeared into the mist, hearing the group calling his name. Everything was dark, and damp, as he flew but after a minute the mist cleared. He felt his feet touch down on land and he looked around. He was standing on an island in the middle of the lake. There was a cavern in front of him, and as he looked into it he heard water begin to churn. Looking out into the lake, a stone path way of rocks began to appear, forming a broken bridge back towards the shore. 

Kirito waited, and a few minutes later Asuna came hopping out of the mist. “He's OK! There's an island!” she called back into the darkness. One by one, the party reappeared, hopping from rock to rock until they reached Kirito's position. “You gave us a bit of a scare there” Asuna said as Kirito helped her up onto the island. 

Argo was right behind Asuna and saw Kirito take her hand. When it was Argo's turn to get pulled up, she fell over onto him “Oh Kirito! That was my bad, I'm so clumsy!” Kirito helped her to her feet, looking at her weird. Argo had never been clumsy, she was pretty much a cat. He looked from Argo to Asuna, starting to understand. But now wasn't the time to get into anything like that. He dusted himself off, helping the rest of the party onto the island. 

“Well, if I had to guess, I'd say the boss room is in there” Kirito lifted his sword and pointed it inside. 

“Right, so everyone make sure you have your health and teleport crystals ready. Bosses can't leave their dungeon rooms, so when we get there we'll just peek in and see what we can find.” Asuna commanded the group. Everyone nodded along, checking their inventories out of nerves. The group walked through the entrance of the cavern and just as they made their way deep enough inside, the entrance closed shut, casting them into darkness. 

“Alright, just stay calm. This is why we brought the teleport crystals” came Asuna's voice, although it had a little fear in it. Kirito brought up his command screen. He could see the screen, but it was only superimposed on the background, it didn't create any light in the room. He brought up a teleport crystal and took hold of it. 

“Teleport: Urbus!” He commanded the crystal. But a second later, he was still standing in the dark with everyone else. The rest of the group tried the same thing, because what group project wouldn't, and to no one's surprise, it didn't work for any of them. “This must be an anti-teleport dungeon. But if the doors are closed, the only way out is through.” 

One of the people from Lysa's group spoke up, but Kirito couldn't tell who it was in the dark “Through?! How are we supposed to get through if we can't even see?” But there was one party member who had kept a cool head. The sound of a sword slashing gathered their attention, and a torch flickered to life up ahead. Asuna stood a bit down the corridor, holding the torch up as she walked back. 

“How did ya find that?” Argo asked, wondering when she had even walked off. 

“I just put my hand on the wall and walked slow steps until I felt something. I figured it had to be within arms reach, or else it wouldn't be fair.” Asuna responded. Kirito nodded in the flickering light, another example of Kayaba's fairness. What kind of twisted game was he playing? Was he watching them from somewhere, on the run from the police? He reminded himself to stay focused on the mission, the rest didn't matter until they got out.

The party walked through the dark, stone corridor, listening for enemies. So far, they hadn't come across any but they could hear things echoing from far off. They came to an intersection, with three paths before them, left, center and right. The group stopped and discussed what to do. “I think we should split up”, came the squeaky voiced member of the Iron Curtain. 

Asuna shook her head. “If we split up and something happens, there's no way we could help each other. We have enough supplies, it may take a while but we're just going to have to explore until we find a way out.” Kirito agreed. There wasn't a map system that showed them where their party members were, so if anything happened, all they would see was their health bars going down. Besides, they had only found one torch so far. 

“Asuna is right, we'll be a lot safer if we stick together” Kirito offered, drawing a stare from Argo. He shook his hands in front of him, he wasn't just agreeing with Asuna because...well....he was agreeing because they really did need to stick together! 

ROAAAAARRRRRRRRR.

The loud noise echoed off of the stone, reinforcing the party's need to stick together. There was something big in the dungeon, and it was mad. The group crowded together reflexively, whatever it was, it was somewhere deeper in the dungeon. Just knowing that it was there was enough to put Kirito on edge. They walked on up the center path. 

After two hours, they came to an intersection again. “Guys, I think this is the place where we started.” Lysa groaned loudly. Kirito looked around at the 4 way intersection, and it did look familiar, although the entire place looked the same to him. “Let's take a break and eat, I'm starving!” she suggested. Kirito didn't have to look at his hunger meter, he could definitely eat as well. The group sat down, after two hours the only exploring he had done was finding out which name belonged to which party member. GiNa was the squeaky voiced one, and then there was Vlad, the quiet but tall one. Xhosef and Daito rounded out the group. The sound of Boss roaring from deep inside setting them on edge again.

“Geez, if he's going to be yelling so much, why can't he just yell which way to go?” Argo whined. Kirito laughed as he sat next to her, bringing up his item screen. There was a different item at the top of his list, where Hermes' Winged Helmet had been. Instead, there was now a Golden Thread. He brought it up and looked at it. Argo watched as he looked at the thread, bringing up a grilled cheese and splitting it between the two of them. Kirito looked at the edge of the sandwich poking in his face, reminding him to eat. He took his ration and 'toasted' it against Argo's, happily nomming away. The rest of the group followed suit, taking out their packed lunches to lower their hunger meter. 

When everyone was done, Kirito pointed out the new item. “I was just looking through my equipment screen and the helmet disappeared but this thread was in its place. I think we can use it it to figure out this maze.” 

Asuna stepped forward and held her hand out for the thread. Kirito tossed it over to her and Argo looked at him again, this time confused. “How come you had to use the command screen for that guy in town, but you were able to hand it to her?” She asked. Kirito was glad it was game related and not something else.

“We're in a party, so we can just share things. Like the way you handed me a sandwich. But outside of a party you need to use the command screens. It keeps people from stealing, or at least it keeps people from stealing from people outside of their party. You can't just run up and grab something from an unwitting lower level character.” Kirito explained. Asuna took the thread and wrapped it around a rock that was jutting out, pulling on it lightly to make sure it stayed. Now, they could make sure they weren't getting crossed up if the Labyrinth was playing tricks on them. 

“How long is that torch going to last for?” Lysa asked Asuna. 

“Hmm...judging by the durability, about 4 more hours. So we better find this boss soon.” She responded. If they didn't find their way by then, they would have to do it in complete darkness. With a clock on the mission running, finding the boss now took on some more urgency. The party set off, using the thread as a guide. Now, every time the Boss roared it was louder, signaling that they were headed in the right direction. Kirito was nervous, on the first floor, there was about 100 people in the raiding party. Now, they were going in with only 8. Sure, it had only taken four of them in the end to defeat Illfang, but more was always better. 

There was light coming from up ahead, and they reached the center chamber. There were torches lining two walls of the room, and there were large stone pillars reaching up to the ceiling. A towering, bull-like creature stood at the middle of the ruins. It carried a long, Labrys (double-headed ax) and had a small, golden crown between its 6 horns. Its upper body was bare, but its massive thighs were covered by chain mail. There were no supporting enemies that they could see, but the creature had 5 health bars instead of 4. Kirito got a look at the name, Asterius, the Taurus king. It hadn't moved yet, as they hadn't crossed the threshold. 

Before Kirito could speak, Asuna gathered the group. “Alright, there are only 8 of us, and we're going to have to make do with that. We don't know what his attack is yet, so stay around the outside until we can figure him out. Use your shields and block a lot. Kirito and I will keep him distracted and then we'll regroup when we get an idea.” Asuna looked to Kirito, volunteering him to take on a boss 2v1. He grit his teeth, it wasn't the best but they were going to have to do it!

The group took a moment to make last minute preparations and then moved in. Asterius turned towards them as they crossed the threshold. Asuna and Kirito ran to keep Asterius' attention on them, while Argo, Lysa and the rest of the group ran to the outside. Kirito moved in first, easily landing a few strikes on the large bull. Asterius roared and swiped his ax at Kirito, the heavy weapon thundering loudly against the one of the pillars as Kirito dodged. Asuna rushed in from behind, her thin sword creating a rash of red dots all over the enemies back. Around the outside of the room, the rest of the party waited with shields up. 

Asterius turned his head and roared, but instead of sound, lightning shot from his mouth. Asuna jumped back and out of danger, but the lightning shot towards GiNa. It blasted her full on, taking out about 20% of hrt health and causing a little yellow symbol to appear over her HP bar. She had been paralyzed! There weren't any items discovered yet to cure Paralysis, the player could only wait for it to subside. Damn! They were already down to 7 for now! 

Kirito's sword shone blue as he unleashed heavily on Asterius, angry over the attack on a party member. Red X's appeared where Kirito slashed back and forth, bringing the bull's health down to the next HP bar when...

WHAM!

Kirito went flying, a red gash appearing on his stomach. His HP bar dropped to half as he took a hit from the boss' large ax straight into the stomach. Kirito hit the floor and a few seconds later Argo was already at his side, a healing crystal in her hand. She cast it over Kirito, bringing his health back up by 25%. He winced as the gash disappeared and got back to his feet. “Stay back with your shield up, and jump if you see that lightning attack.” He instructed, rushing back into the fray. Asuna was holding her own, her light sword parrying the beast's large weapon. 

Kirito took advantage of Asterius' attention being drawn, attacking his backside before Asuna yelled at him “Kirito! Wait until we know what his attacks are like! Just block! There, switch in now!” She yelled, parrying the ax so the beast turned towards Kirito as she ducked away to heal. The boss raised his weapon and brought it crashing down towards Kirito, who jumped off to the side. He had always been a very “kick ass, take names” type player, and didn't put enough stock into shields or blocking. In a regular game, as long as he could attack them fast enough before they could get him, it was alright. 

Kirito got to his feet, waiting for the large enemy's next attack. The bull swiped the ax at him sideways, and this time he was ready. He slashed his sword upwards, sending the ax over him. The force of the attack sent the ax flying into one of the pillars. “Now Asuna!” Kirito yelled, shifting his weight and lunging in immediately. Asterius' weapon was down, and they wouldn't get many chances like that. Asuna joined in, slashing at the Taurus' backside. They dropped an entire other HP bar from the bosses life before the creature regained its ax, swiping it heavily at the duo to put them on the defensive. As Kirito and Asuna jumped back, Lysa became the closest to Asterius. 

The large bull shifted targets, rushing directly at the girl. She got her shield up in time to absorb the hit, but it sent her flying, crashing down across the room. “Argo! Heal her, the rest of you, group up with your shields to make sure he doesn't get you alone!” Kirito commanded across the battlefield. Asuna had already rushed in to regain the boss' attention, her lightning fast reflexes making up for the power difference. Kirito marveled for a moment at her strategy. She had chosen a light blade for the most speed, and if she couldn't parry a hit, she just ducked. 

He joined in on the assault with Asuna, this time they were on the offensive. Asterius was too powerful for them to toy around with him for too long. The player that had been paralyzed finally regained her movement and joined the phalanx, as well as Argo and Lysa. When Kirito switched back out, he looked over at them. He didn't like it, but in order to win this fight, everyone was going to have to join. “Alright now everybody, move in with your shields interlocked! Just keep him busy so we can attack from the back side!” He ordered. The group looked nervous, but did as he said. Each member held their shield out to form one large blocker, moving towards Asterius. The beast was drawn to the largest grouping, and swiped his ax towards them.

The weapon crashed across the shields, sending up sparks but otherwise doing no damage. Kirito and Asuna unleashed a barrage of sword skills on the boss, dropping it down to it its last two HP bars. Asterius let out another roar, slamming its ax down heavily from overhead on the shield group. They split apart, half jumping to the left the rest to the right. But Asterius' attack had planted it's ax in the ground. As it struggled, Asuna and Kirito rushed back in. The boss was defenseless for a few seconds before it finally pried the weapon from the ground. 

Asterius swiped at Kirito again, and this time he parried the ax again. The force from knocking his ax away kept him off balance for longer, allowing Asuna a better target to attack. Asterius swiped again at the shield group, skipping his ax off of them like a rock on a pond. The ax continued on into another pillar, demolishing it. Dust began to fall from above. There were red lines all over Kirito's side of Asterius, and dots on Asuna's. They had been working so hard that Kirito could feel his hunger meter going up, and his health dropping lightly. But he couldn't think about that now! Kirito and Asuna whittled away the second to last HP bar, and soon Asterius was down to one. 

Kirito expected a roar, but instead Asterius raised his sword overhead. Time slowed down as he watched the muscular bull launch the large, double-headed ax towards Asuna. He raised his hand, knowing it was futile. He was too far away. Asuna flipped backwards and tumbled to the ground, the ax just missing her. It crashed through another pillar and embedded itself in the wall behind. The room shook a little and stones began to drop down from the ceiling, clanging loudly off of the groups' shields. 

“Kirito! The ceiling looks like it could come down at any moment!” Argo yelled towards him. She was right, but there was no way that Asterius was getting that ax out of the wall. Without its weapon, he and Asuna could take it out easily. He went to move in when Asterius reached behind himself with both hands. The giant beast pulled two curved swords out of thin air, and as Kirito and Asuna went to double team him they found that they were now matched. Every thrust of the sword was met as Asterius fought with a fervor. 

“Argo, Lysa! You guys are going to have to join in! Keep your shields up and wait for your moment to attack!” Sparks flew as Kirito and Asuna traded blows with the Taurus King, and the rest of their party moved closer. Kirito kept an eye on Argo, she had upgraded from her tiny dagger, but her Dirk of Agility was still a close range weapon. But with their best swordspeople keeping Asterius' weapons busy, the group had an easy time landing attacks and getting away. But Kirito's health was flagging and almost to yellow. “Asuna, keep him busy for ten seconds!” He hopped back, he had one Large Healing Crystal that would recover 50% of his health, he just needed it to take affect.

Kirito watched from the outside as Asuna handled both of Asterius' swords...until the large creature swiped them at the shield group. Argo and Lysa had their shields up, but the entire group was knocked over and to the side, leaving just Asuna with the boss. Kirito's health was almost there...and then he was rushing across the ruins. Larger rocks had begun to fall, and he dodged to the side as a boulder came crashing down. Asterius was still focused on Asuna, and as much as he wanted to get her out of danger, he needed to take advantage while he could. His sword shone blue again, and this time it slashed several times. 

Asterius turned towards the new attacker, and Kirito tried his best to parry both swords, but he couldn't keep up the speed. His health began to waver and he grimaced, was this about to be it? Asterius focused on him as he did all that he could, watching his health reach 50%...

And then Asterius stopped and howled. The dungeon boss turned bright and he pixelated. His body shattered and filled the room with gleaming pieces that slowly disappeared. A fanfare blared.

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE BEATEN LEVEL 2.   
YOU MAY NOW PROCEED TO LEVEL 3.

A command screen popped up in front of Kirito and everyone else in the room, informing them of how much XP and Col they had gained. Kirito wasn't the one to land the winning hit this time, so he had no idea what item the boss dropped. He was looking across at Asuna, the dungeon boss no longer between them, when Argo grabbed him from behind. “Oh Kirito! That was incredible! I can't believe you took on the boss like that!” She wrapped her arms around him tightly.

Lysa and company had dusted themselves off and joined them. “Kirito was good, but Asuna was amazing! She handled both of his swords at once!”

Kirito had to agree. He couldn't keep up with Asterius' speed, but Asuna did. He was just glad that they had made it through without any casualties. “As much as I'd like to stick around and chat, the roof is caving in.” He pointed upwards as more rocks crashed down around them. The group rushed to the portal as the Labyrinth imploded on itself. They had reached Floor 3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all are enjoying this! It's getting a bit lengthy, and if I keep this up I'm actually reaching for Harry Potter level. I'm trying my best to pepper in the video game mechanics part, so it isn't too much tutorial. That's partially why Argo is such a great person to have around, there is a good reason for Kirito to be explaining all of the game mechanics to someone whose job was to write strategy guides on the game mechanics (Not just a hat rack my friends!) Anyway, finding out that this site likes smut, I tried my best to give a little scene between Argo and Kirito. It's still pretty PG, and that's about as much as it'll ever go. 
> 
> We've started to get out of canon. I pulled the name Urbus, and the boss "Asterius the Taurus King" from wiki's about the light novels, but if I'm wrong about their attacks and the way things look, its because we're starting to move into my world. 
> 
> I'm iffy on my Class system for weapons. It took me a bit to realize how I could organize the names to fit 4...superlatives? Lol, I don't know what word describes the add-ons best. It may get to be a bit wordy but there will be things like Knights Heavenly Mithril Sword of the Moon, and I'll have the meanings for them all so if someone really wanted they could go look up what it is without me having to write into the episode what the stats are. 
> 
> I'll start adding in new characters and guilds and story arcs now that I'm starting to move out of canon. If there are going to be 100 episodes, I don't want it be 100 of the same thing and bore the hell out of you guys, so I'll try my best to keep things fresh and different each floor. Let me know if you spot anything!


	4. Appendix: The Skeleton

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These are my notes that I will be working from. I consider it a "Skeleton", it is the bones of the work, and I will add in the meat. I've got a character list, canon and non. I will be trying to make a mix of randomly created names and characters you may recognize. If you ever played Outwar, you'll notice the "Kyosuke" and "Heaven and Earth" guild. That was where I learned a lot about guilds, so I will be pulling from those experiences. I will also be using other games, and even creating a stat sheet so you can know how much HP and strength Kirito has on the way. 
> 
> I'll basically try to have this be the "Wiki". Character list, Guild List, Item List, Spell List, Skill tree, Floor guide, etc.

Sword Art Online, Remastered  
POV: Third Person, Limited, Kirito  
(There will also be some “recounted” episodes, where Kirito is not the main character and we follow someone else, and then the story is told to Kirito.)

Character List  
Kirito, Kazuto Kirigaya, (Main Character)  
Asuna, Yuuki Asuna (Love interest)  
Agil, Andrew Gilbert Mills (Weapons Shop Owner)  
Lisbeth, Shinozaki Rika (Weapon Shop Owner)  
Klein, Tsuboi Ryoutarou (Fuurinkazan)  
Silica, Ayano Keiko (Pet Master)  
Zekken, Yuuki Konno (Master Swordsperson)  
Heathcliff/Kayaba Akihiko (Final Boss, KotBO, 100th Floor)  
Kuradeel (KotBO)  
Daizen (KotBO)  
Godfree (KotBO)  
Sachi (Black Cats)  
Sasamaru (Black Cats)  
Ducker (Black Cats)  
Keita (Black Cats)  
Tetsuo (Black Cats)  
Argo the Rat, Hosaka Carina Tomo (Info Broker)  
Sasha (Caretaker of kids)  
Johnny Black, Kanamoto Atsushi (Laughing Coffin)  
Red Eyed XaXa, Shinkawa Shouichi (Laughing Coffin)  
PoH (Laughing Coffin)  
Yoko (Golden Apple)  
Caynz (Golden Apple)  
Grimlock (Golden Apple)  
Griselda (Golden Apple)  
Schmitt (Golden Apple, Divine Dragon Alliance)  
Yamata (Divine Dragon Alliance, Fuurinkazan)  
Diavel (Leader of 1st Floor Raid)  
Lind (1st Floor Raid, Dragon Knight Brigade)  
Shivata (Dragon Knight Brigade)  
Kibaou (Aincrad Liberation Force)  
Kobatz (Aincrad Liberation Force)  
Thinker (Aincrad Liberation Force)  
Yulier (Aincrad Liberation Force)  
Nishida (Old Fisherman)  
Rosalia (Titan's Hand Red Guild)  
Sinon, Asada Shino (The Silver Shadows)  
Dyne (The Silver Shadows)  
M, Asougi Goushi (The Silver Shadows)  
Ginrou (The Silver Shadows)  
Pale Rider (The Silver Shadows)  
Behemoth (Titan's Hand)

Non-Canon Character List:  
Galand - (KotBO)  
Bors – (KotBO)  
Lancelot – (KotBO)  
Percival – (KotBO)  
Gawain – (KotBO)  
Bedivere - (KotBO)  
Karkass – (Titan's Hand)  
Yasuo - (Titan's Hand)  
Shin – (Titan's Hand)  
GrimCreeper – (Laughing Coffin)  
L33T – (Laughing Coffin)  
Kevin – (Laughing Coffin)  
Dant3 – (Laughing Coffin)  
Kyosuke - (Heaven and Earth)  
Renzor - (Heaven and Earth)  
Azrael - ( Heaven and Earth)  
Metatron – (Heaven and Earth)  
ArkAngel – (Heaven and Earth)  
Levi - (Fuurinkazan)  
Charra – (Fuurinkazan)  
Tyrus – (Fuurinkazan)  
Wrecka- (Fuurinkazan)  
Zzz – (Fuurinkazan)  
Lysa – (Turqoise Tanks)  
GiNa – (Turquoise Tanks)  
VlaD – (Turquoise Tanks)  
Xhosef – (Turquoise Tanks)  
Daito – (Turquoise Tanks)  
Lilith - (PsychoWolves)  
Angus – (PsychoWolves)  
Darrick - ()  
Cholik - ()  
Sora - ()  
Zhihao - ()  
Jun - ()  
Art3mis - ()

Guild List  
Fuurinkazan (Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain. Sun Tzu)  
Knights of the Blood Oath – NPC led, 9 members + Heathcliff (10 floors for the castle story, take a guess why! The guild might not be open to players.)  
Aincrad Liberation Force  
Dragon Knight Brigade  
Moonlit Black Cats  
Titan's Hand  
Laughing Coffin  
Divine Dragon Alliance  
Golden Apple

Non-Canon Guilds:  
Servants of the Dark Warrior – Also NPC led, dark uniforms to KotBO's white. Guild war arc.  
Heaven and Earth  
The Silver Shadows (Long Range)  
Aincrad Protection Force  
Turquoise Tanks  
The Blood Elves  
XmoonDwarvesX  
The PsychoWolves – Red Guild  
Fairy Clan

Skills:  
Cooking  
Blacksmithing  
Item Creation  
Identification – Glasses with special powers, can “see” the special properties  
Pet/Familiar  
Music (Buffer)  
Writing  
Art  
Fishing/Hunting

Weapon Tree:  
Sword – 1 Hand (Most choose shield, Kirito leaves open for dual wield) – shorter range, higher defense (with shield), lower damage, higher speed, lower damage.  
Long sword – 2 Handed – longer range, lower defense, higher damage  
Spear – 2 Handed, longer range, lower defense, high damage  
Axe – 2 Handed, short range, high defense, high damage  
Bow – Long range, zero defense   
Shield (as a weapon) – High defense, zero range. 

Classes, Weapons/Armor  
E - Class – No Extra Stat (IE Iron Sword)  
D – Class – Plain weapons, low attack, low durability. Max 1 extra stat (IE Iron Sword of Power)  
C – Class – Upgraded. Higher attack and durability. Max 2 extra stat (IE Knight's Copper Sword of Power)  
B – Class – Even higher attack and durability. Max 2 extra stat. Open new stats (IE, Knight's Gold Sword of the Moon)  
A – Class – High attack and durability. Max 3 extra stat. All new stats available (IE, Powerful Knight's Crystal Sword of the Moon)  
S – Class – Highest attack and durability. Max 4 extra stat. All stats available. (IE Powerful Knight's Mithril Sword of the Golden Moon)

Equippable Area:  
Head – Helmet, Tiara, Crown, etc  
Necklace  
Armor – Starting leather, moves to iron/bronze etc  
Armor – Full coverage in one item or multiple pieces?  
Gloves  
Rings/Bracelets  
Boots

Levels:  
Iron  
Bronze  
Copper  
Silver  
Gold  
Crystal  
Diamond  
Meteor/Mithril/Adamantite

Of Power + Strength  
Of Accuracy + Accuracy  
Of Health + HP  
Of Defense +Defense  
Of Protection +Poisondef   
Of the Moon  
Of the Sun  
Of the Stars  
Of the Gods  
Of the Fighter  
Of the Champion  
Of the Oracle  
Of the Goddess  
Of the Damned  
Of the Swamp  
Of the Slow  
Of the Worthy  
Of the Mighty  
Of the Knight  
Of the King +Def  
Of the Queen +Speed+Range  
Of the Dead  
Of the Sloth  
Of Gold  
Of Silver  
Of Tarnish  
Of Ruin  
Of Decay  
Of Fear  
Of the Flame  
Of the Bull

Special weapons:   
Max 5 extra stats. Limits are broken but may have a negative status effect to balance it out as well, such as HP leeching armor. Instead of the usual describers, these items have a special name.

Weapon List:  
Swords:  
Elucidator  
Dark Repulsor  
Excalibur  
Ragnarok

Axe:  
Mjolnir  
The Midgard Breaker  
Sormrstorm

Bow:   
Robin's Revenge

Shield:  
Gigas Shield  
Aegis Shield

Armor List:  
Power Leech  
Featherlyte

Floor/Episode List  
Prologue: Real World, Introducing NerveGear,   
(Hidden Dungeon, Subfloor 1. Five Floor dungeon with Boss: Fatal Scythe, not introduced until Floor 89. A tease before the Ruby Palace, the final 10 levels on top of Aincrad)  
1: The Town of New Beginnings, Plains, Black Iron Palace, Tolbana, Quest: Don't Have a Cow, Quest: The Boneyard, Boss: Illfang The Kobold Lord  
2: Urbus, Savannah. Corintha, Quest: Guardian of the Valley, Quest: The Labyrinth, Boss: Asterius, The Taurus King  
3: Forest of Wavering Mists, Baobab trees, Quest: Quest: Boss: Nerius the Evil Treant  
4: Rovia. Quest: Quest: Boss: Leoric, the Lion's Mane.   
5: Karluin, Quest: Quest: Boss:   
6 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
7 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
8: Frieven, Forest. Quest: Quest: Boss: Wadjet, the Flaming Serpent  
9 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
10: Underwater Level. Help from Mermaids. Gimmick for breathing underwater. Quest: Quest: “Decade” Boss: The Kraken, Lord of the Deep  
11: Quest: Quest: Taft Boss:  
12 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
13 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
14 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
15 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
16 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
17 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
18 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
19: Hill of the Cross. Quest: Quest: Boss:  
20: Sunshine Forest Quest: Quest:“Decade” Boss: The Jinxed Jester  
21 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
22: Coral, The Quiet Mountains, Forest/Mountain/Lakes. Quest: Quest: Boss: The Witch of the West  
23 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
24: Panareze Island, Vast ocean with small islands. Quest: Quest: Boss:   
25: Mazelike, with poisonous swamps. Quest: Quest: Boss: Two Headed Giant  
26 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
27: Ronbaru, The Midnight Land, perpetual darkness. Quest: Quest: Boss: The Four Armed Giant (Change 25?)  
28: Wolf Plains Quest: Quest: Boss:  
29 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
30: Quest: Quest: Decade Boss: Demon's Gate (Wall demon)  
31 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
32 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
33 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
34 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
35: Mishe City, The Forest of Wandering, Snowy Woods. Quest: Quest: Boss: Nicholas the Renegade (Event)  
36 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
37 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
38 Norse Quest: Quest: Boss:  
39 Norse Quest: Quest: Thrymr  
40: Quest: Quest: Decade Boss: Jormungandr, the World Serpent. Long range battle  
41Quest: Quest: Boss:  
42 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
43 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
44 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
45 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
46 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
47: Floria, Flower Garden, a vast flowery land. Quest: Quest: Boss: The Rose Thorn  
48: Lindarth, Lisbeth's Shop Quest: Quest: Boss:  
49: Myujen City Quest: Quest: Boss:  
50: Algade City. Agil's Shop. Halfway. (EVENT: Introduction of Heathcliff, NPC KotBO Guild leader) Halfway Boss: Scorantulla the Stinger  
51 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
52 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
53 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
54 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
55: Granzam, Steel City KotBO HQ. Dragon Ingot Quest. Quest: Wasteland, canyons. Boss: X'rphan the White Wyrm  
56 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
57: Marten City Quest: Quest: Boss:  
58 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
59: Danac Quest: Quest: Boss:  
60: Quest: Quest: Decade Boss: Rael Turgal, the Fire Drake  
61: Selmburg, More Lake and islands. Quest: Quest: Boss:  
62 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
63 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
64 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
65 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
66 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
67 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
68 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
69 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
70: Quest: Quest: Decade Boss: Naglfar   
71 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
72 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
73 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
74: Kamdet City. Hilly area. Quest: Quest: Boss: Gleam Eyes  
75: Collinia, The Boneyard Quest: Quest: Boss: Skull Reaper  
76 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
77 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
78 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
79 Quest: Quest: Boss:  
80 – Quest: Quest:Decade Boss: Bahamut, the Dragon Guard   
81 – Ten Levels of Hell, Level 1 Quest: Quest: Boss: Kabraxis  
82 – Ten Levels of Hell, Level 2 Quest: Quest: Boss: Tal Rasha  
83 – Ten Levels of Hell, Level 3 Quest: Quest: Boss: Duriel  
84 – Ten Levels of Hell, Level 4 Quest: Quest: Boss: Abaddon  
85 – Ten Levels of Hell, Level 5 Quest: Quest: Boss: Andariel  
86 – Ten Levels of Hell, Level 6 Quest: Quest: Boss: Baphomet  
87 – Ten Levels of Hell, Level 7 Quest: Quest: Boss: Diablo  
88 – Ten Levels of Hell, Level 8 Quest: Quest: Boss: Mephisto  
89 – Ten Levels of Hell, Level 9, Quest: Quest: Transported to underground Dungeon. Boss: BaaL  
90 – The Divine Castle on the Mount. Quest: Quest: Decade Boss: Galand, The Guardian  
91 – Castle Floor 1 – No Quests Boss: KotBO Guardian #1  
92 – Castle Floor 2 – No Quests Boss: KotBO Guardian #2  
93 – Castle Floor 3 – No Quests Boss: KotBO Guardian #3  
94 – Castle Floor 4 – No Quests Boss: KotBO Guardian #4  
95 – Castle Floor 5 – No Quests Boss: KotBO Guardian #5  
96 – Castle Floor 6 – No Quests Boss: KotBO Guardian #6  
97 – Castle Floor 7 – No Quests Boss: KotBO Guardian #7  
98 – Castle Floor 8 – No Quests Boss: KotBO Guardian #8  
99 – Castle Floor 9 – No Quests Boss: KotBO Guardian #9  
100 – Castle Floor Ten - Heathcliff/Kayaba's Throneroom, Ruby Palace  
Floor 101: Battle on the Clouds

Item List:  
Light Healing Crystal – 10% HP  
Healing Crystal – 25% HP  
Large Healing Crystal – 50% HP  
Antidote Crystal – Heal Poison  
Shock Crystal – Heal Paralysis  
Echo Screen – Heal Silence (No sword skills)  
Eye Drops – Heal Dark  
Remedy Crystal – Heals all status ailments  
Teleport Crystal – Return to Town

Special Item List:  
Hermes' Winged Helmet  
The Golden Thread

Cooking Skill Tree  
Pots  
Knives  
Achievement style learning, do something so many times, earn the next level.   
Imbue  
Tea as well

Blacksmith Skill Tree  
Sharpen (Hand whetstone, upgrade to pedal grindstone)  
Specialties? Or is that too intensive?  
Creativity  
Imbue

Music Skill Tree  
Buffer Distance +1+2+3, Buffer type (by kind of music), Buffer length, Buffer strength

Hunting Skill Tree  
Hunting Vs Fishing

Identification Skill Tree  
Sight. Reveals the Class of a weapon, and its properties if it is unidentified. Leaves a bit of randomness and luck to the game (Think Diablo)

Item Creation Skill Tree (Think Star Ocean)  
Clay or other Medium to create important items. 

Sword Skill Tree  
1 Hand Vs 2 Hand  
Slash  
Sword + Shield  
Starburst Stream

Axe Skill Tree  
Power Slash

Spear Skill Tree  
Shield Skill Tree

Bow Skill Tree  
Distance+1+2+3  
Multishot  
Powershot

Theme song:  
Mitomete ita okubyou na kako   
Wakaranai mama ni kowagatte ita   
Ushiro no jibun ga genjitsu wo ima ni utsusu 

Ikutsu mono sora wo kaita koko wa kitto   
Hakanai kokoro midashite 

Yume de takaku tonda karada wa   
Donna fuan matotte mo furiharatte iku   
Nemuru chiisana omoi hirogari dashite   
Kizuku yowai watashi kimi ga ireba 

Kurai sekai tsuyoku ireta   
Nagai yume miru kokoro wa sou eien de 

I want to always be with you   
I'll give you everything I have... 

Sagashite ita michibiku hikari   
Furereba subete omoidashite   
Kakegae no nai taisetsu na ima wo kureru 

Me wo toji sekai wo shitta   
Sore wa itsumo atatakai no ni itakute 

Tsunagu tashika na negai kasanari atte   
Mieru mayoi wa ugoki hajimeta   
Kimi wo mamoritakute seou kizu wa   
Fukai nemuri no naka tadayotta 

Kawaranai yakusoku datta   
Futari shinjita kizuna wa sou senmei ni 

Koe ga todoku made namae wo yonde   
Deaeta kiseki kanjitai motto 

Yume de takaku tonda karada wa   
Donna fuan matotte mo furiharatte iku   
Nemuru chiisana omoi hirogari dashite   
Kidzuku yowai watashi kimi ga ireba 

Kurai sekai tsuyoku ireta   
Nagai yume miru kokoro wa sou eien de

I want to always be with you   
I'll give you everything I have... 

Inspirations/citations/references: Some of these things may not be correct, and I'll try to refine the hell out of them as I re-work what I've written. I will try to “cement” things every 5 to 10 floors so that there is no need for re-reading, but it is a work in progress. 

Kobold Legend: The show has Illfang as a giant beast, but according to wikipedia, Kobolds are tiny impish sprites that fuck with people. So, the NPC 'children' that led them there are supposed to be Kobolds, playing tricks on characters.   
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobold

Daedelus and Icarus/Asterion: Daedelus was a weird dude. There was a queen who wanted to sleep with a bull, so he made a wooden cow to put her inside so she could get her furry freak on. She had a child from the mating, and named it (yes, it) Asterion. Daedelus and his son, Icarus (yes, that Icarus) were forced to create a labyrinth for the Minotaur, and then were imprisoned and then had their crazy escape. 

A Big Note Section:

About Time Skips: I am both a fan and a hater of them. SAO skipped too much time. It was first day, then 1 month later. According to the wikis, they seemed to progress through Floor 2 in ten days, and then after that they started to move pretty quickly. In the anime, we pick it up 5? months later, then another large time skip, then all of a sudden its two years into the game and we follow the last week.

My time skips will be days, maybe a week. Kirito won't be the one to complete every quest or defeat every boss, but each episode will encompass what Kirito is doing while each floor is explored. Klein will probably be a big story tell of the things that happen when Kirito isn't on the front lines, and Argo as well (she wont be on the front lines, but she'll get it through the grapevine).

When a floor is cleared, an alert will go out to everyone on that floor, information about the floor being cleared will be passed down through info brokers, and there will end up being 1 broker per floor with all of the news. There'll be a bit of a turf war over that. 

Note on change: KotBO and Servants of the Dark Warrior will be White/Black themed NPC guilds. Other guilds and players can party and group with them, but cannot join. I'm only posting the skeleton here, so if you're reading this, you're the only ones that know these shots that I'm calling. We all know that Heathcliff is Kayaba and thus evil, so I don't feel like I'm revealing too much about the end by saying that the main KotBO NPCs (the canon ones included) will be floor bosses in the end. 

I am soliciting suggestions for character and guild names. I'm going for those cool sounding ones and pulling from various games and shows. Anything gamer related works! Put it in a comment and I'll put you in the thank you's. 

I am open to suggestion, I will defend my ideas that I like but there are ones that I will fold on as well! Not everything I write first will be perfect, so I may change something up if its not well received or just an obvious issue. So comment away.

Thank You's

Robert_Umbra – LetKiritoCuss2020


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